Police charge man in fatal hit-and-run

Santa Fe woman, Hernández man killed in incident last week on U.S. 84

A Santa Fe man has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run in the Northern New Mexico community of Hernández that left two pedestrians dead last week.

Beverly P. Trujillo, 43, of Santa Fe was killed on impact in the incident, which occurred along U.S. 84 around 9:30 p.m. July 20. Joey Romero, 49, of Hernández was transported to Presbyterian Española Hospital, a few miles down the road, but later died of his injuries.

Joseph Roybal, who is 20 or 21, according to online court records, is charged with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death and one count of failure to give notice of an accident. The charges were filed in Española Magistrate Court on Monday, but it’s unclear exactly how that came about.

According to a search warrant filed Monday by New Mexico State Police, an attorney representing Roybal — later identified as Dan Marlowe — called the agency

the day after the incident and told police they could find the blue 2009 Toyota Tacoma involved in the fatal accident at a home in Santa Fe.

When officers arrived at the address, the warrant says, they found a truck with damage consistent with evidence collected at the scene and a “red substance that appeared to be blood remaining on the driver side bumper in the crease between the bumper and fender of the vehicle.”

A woman at the home named Michelle Valdez, who identified herself as Roybal’s mother, told officers that her son had called her on his way back from Abiquiú Lake, where he’d been with his wife and a friend that day, to tell her he had “hit somebody,” the document said.

Valdez then corrected herself, according to the warrant, saying instead that her son told her he had “hit something.”

Valdez told police she asked her son what he had hit, the warrant said, but he told her he didn’t know, and she was “afraid for her son and advised him to return home.”

Defense attorney Marlowe, who confirmed via text message Tuesday evening that he is representing Roybal, said in his message that the incident was “a straight accident. No drugs, no alcohol, no reckless driving.” The victims were in the middle of the highway when they were struck, he added.

According to a witness, the pair had been dropped off in Hernández, across the highway from Romero’s home, in a green car. They were crossing the road to reach his house when they were struck by a vehicle.

It was unclear Tuesday how Roybal came to be charged in Española, and there is no record that he was ever arrested or booked into jail in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba or Los Alamos counties. Marlowe said via text message that he “called the DA” about the incident, but he didn’t respond to a message seeking clarification.

First Judicial District Attorney Jennifer Padgett couldn’t be reached for comment on the case late Tuesday.

Kenny Lawrence, who runs a restaurant across the road from Romero’s home, told The New Mexican he saw the pair exit the green car, heard a vehicle strike them and then saw several other vehicles run over their bodies.

Romero’s mother, Betty Romero, said Tuesday she found that part of her son’s death particularly disturbing.

“I’m glad he’s caught,” she said of Roybal, upon hearing of the charges against the Santa Fe man. “Accidents happen, but you don’t run over people, not one body but two, and then leave ’em there for others to trample over him.

“I’m very saddened for this young man,” she added, speaking of Roybal. “I can understand his actions for taking off. … It’s very heartbreaking.”