Judge sentences repeat drunken driver to five years for crash

Accident put a passenger on life support; other driver says injuries derailed business

A repeat drunk driver will spend the next several years in prison after causing a crash that put his girlfriend on life support and injured another driver.

Dale Valdez, 32, of Velarde pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of causing great bodily injury by vehicle in exchange for a sentence of five years in prison and five years probation.

But the plea hearing at state District Court in Santa Fe did not seem to bring closure to anyone, with one victim’s injuries described as severe and the other driver lamenting that the wounds undercut his ability to work, effectively dooming a small business he had just opened, and pointing to what he described as the real, lasting costs of drunken driving.

According to court filings by prosecutors, Valdez was arguing with his girlfriend as they traveled west on N.M. 76 near Pacheco Lane in Española around 9:30 p.m. on April 15.

“Do you want to die?” Valdez is said to have asked her at one point, using an expletive. “I’ll kill you now.”

Prosecutors said he then drove into oncoming traffic, colliding with another vehicle.

Medics airlifted Valdez’s girlfriend to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where she was on life support for several days after the crash.

Meanwhile, the driver of the other vehicle suffered a broken shoulder, among other injuries.

Alfredo Flores, a mechanic, said Monday the wounds impeded his ability to work and led him to close the shop he had recently opened.

“I lost my business because of this,” Flores said after the hearing, viewing the sentence as too light for a crime he describes as a setback for his entire family.

Valdez faces additional charges, including drug possession with intent to distribute.

Prosecutors also have said Valdez was driving on a suspended license at the time of the crash. Valdez had been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated on four previous occasions since 2001, according to prosecutors. And court records show he has been convicted in the past on charges including aggravated battery on a household member, driving with a suspended license, leaving the scene of an accident and receiving stolen property.

Had he known about the other charges, Flores said, he would have wanted the case to go to trial.

If convicted by a jury, Valdez could have faced up to 22 years in prison.

“It’s hard to watch them walk free with the least, the minimum,” Flores, referring to drunk drivers, told Judge T. Glenn Ellington during Monday’s hearing.

Valdez said little but his lawyer, Damian Horne, said his client had been in ill health, suffering from — among other things — severe heart problems.

Though Valdez will receive credit for time served and good behavior, Horne said prison is “not going to be a walk in the park for him.”