Russ, Ry, and Stacey at Bandelier. (125k) September 17, 1999 - just hours before the collision.
Printable version. (300dpi, 476k)
Russ and Mary at Mary's graduation. (83k)
Printable version. (300dpi, 232k)
Last updated Feb 14 2001 - Motion for reconsideration filed in December. See the Garcia updates page.
Tax-deductible memorial donations may be made to:
MADD 8200 Mountain RD. NE, Suite 210 Albuquerque, NM 87110 or to Friends of Bandelier P. O. Box 1282 Los Alamos, NM 87544.
Obituary as submitted to Los Alamos Monitor, Nov 6, 1999.
On the afternoon of September 17th 1999, Russ, Mary (Stacey's parents), Stacey, and Ryland (Russ & Mary's grandson and Stacey's and my son, 8 months old) plus family friends Micha, Carl and Catalina Mitchell (following in their own truck) were taking a drive in the Jemez mountains of northern New Mexico some 20 miles outside of Los Alamos. Russ was taking everyone up to hear the elk bugling - hearing the elk is something that he loved to do every year.
It happened at about 5:30 PM MDT, near milepost 42 on State Road 4. Russ, driving the family's Camry, rounded a turn to find an oncoming car completely in his lane. In the split second that it became obvious that the oncoming driver was not going to return to his side of the road, Russ attempted to swerve left to avoid him. As there was a guardrail on the shoulder, there was no way to attempt to avoid the oncoming car on the right. There was a head on collision on the passenger sides of the cars. Both cars were probably traveling at about 45mph.
The compression of the passenger compartment of the Camry on the right hand side was enough to break both of Mary's legs above the knees, plus her left ankle. There literally was no longer a leg well in the right front side of the car. In addition, her right arm was broken above and below the elbow. She apparently had her arm tucked under the shoulder belt - she probably was doing that to keep the belt off of her neck. She also suffered a liver laceration that was not severe enough to require surgery, and an occipital joint dislocation that did require surgery. More information about her injuries and treatment in her diary.
Russ, who was in the driver's seat, impacted and bent the steering wheel and suffered massive internal injuries. Note: the rescuing EMT's cut the lower part of the steering wheel off in order to extricate him from the car. The steering wheel did NOT break in the collision.
There were trained off-duty rescue personnel on the scene shortly after the collision, but the equipment needed to extricate Russ and Mary from the Camry was not available for several hours. The rescue personnel had ascertained the extreme severity of Russ's injuries and decided to fly him directly to the University Medical Center in Albuquerque. Russ died from his injuries while the rescue helicopter was en-route with him to the hospital. The trauma doctor that examined Russ's body upon his arrival at UMC indicated that there was no way he would have survived his injuries even if he was 5 minutes from the trauma center. Russ and Mary were both conscious after the collision, in fact Mary never lost consciousness until she reached the Trauma/Surgical ICU (TSI) in Albuquerque. Stacey told Mary of Russ's death after Stacey's release from the UMC's emergency room. Ry was examined and released from the pediatrics unit at UMC.
Mary survived six more weeks on a ventilator and died from complications brought on by her original injuries and secondary infections on October 31 at Vencor hospital in Albuquerque.
Mary's Diary. Last updated Jan 25 2000.
Stacey was behind Russ, Ry was buckled in his rear-facing car seat behind Mary. Stacey suffered some serious bruising and a punctured left elbow, but no broken bones. Ry, the Miracle child, had no apparent injuries, except for a slight bruise on his knee that appeared a day after the crash, and disappeared a few days after that.
The other driver was later determined to be David L. Garcia from Espanola NM. He was seriously injured. His car had spun and flipped, and he was found hanging unconscious out of the passenger window of his car. Mr. Garcia was only wearing shorts and tennis shoes. He was apparently returning from taking a dip in Jemez Springs. He's in his 50's.
The investigating officer, a deputy Baker from the Sandoval County Sheriff's Department, reported smelling a "strong odor of intoxicating liquor" coming from Mr. Garcia's car. His blood was tested after he arrived at the Los Alamos Medical Center, which subsequently indicated he was intoxicated. His blood alcohol content as measured about 6 hours after the collision was .15 - almost twice the legal limit in New Mexico of 0.08. It's possible that his BAC at the time of the collision was as high as .22, depending on the functioning of his liver. Mr. Garcia was then transferred to the University Medical Center in Albuquerque, probably also to TSI (where Mary was sent), though we never inquired as to his exact whereabouts in the hospital.
Garcia has declared himself indigent, and the tab for his care and rehabilitation has most likely been picked up by the State. An independent investigation has turned up no significant assets, yet.
There were 9 charges total filed with the Sandoval County District Attorney. According to the Sandoval County magistrate court, the charges were as follows:
With Mary's death, the "Great bodily injury" charge was upgraded to "Vehicular homicide". See the Garcia updates page for more information.
From my conversations with the Sandoval county Sheriff's department, Mr. Garcia did have previous DUI convictions. Hence several charges above have been automatically upgraded to felonies. Also, the previous convictions may be used as time "enhancements" of the basic sentence. Each previous DUI conviction may be worth up to two years time extension per homicide.
Also, I've been told that Mr. Garcia was driving his daughter's car. In January, we have discovered that there was minimum insurance on the car from Allstate.
See the police report
(The report was scanned at 150 dpi. This resolution should make reasonable prints)
The police report's case number is 99-07386, the case number filed with the magistrate court is M-45-FR-9900352. There was a warrant issued for Mr. Garcia's arrest by a grand jury convened in Sandoval county. According to deputy Baker, he was to be arrested as soon as he was released from the hospital. The original arraignment date was November 10th, but that date was postponed until December 22. In spite of Martinez requesting $.5M bail per homicide charge, Mr. Garcia was released "on his own recognizance" to his daughter in law, Linda Garcia Lucero, by Sandoval County District Court Judge Louis McDonald on Dec 22 1999 (verified Jan 7 2000). On March 3, Garcia and his attorney appeared in Sandoval County District Court and again pled not guilty - rejecting the plea agreement offered by Mr. Martinez. Another hearing was held the last week of April. The (private) hearing on May 22, 2:30PM, was canceled because the new ADA on the case, Mary Dougherty was sick. The hearing was rescheduled for May 31. At the May 31 hearing, Garcia entered a plea agreement. Sentencing was on on June 26. See the Garcia updates page for more information.
There's more online information of the case against Mr. Garcia here: NMCourts Web site
If you have trouble accessing the information on the above Web site, I've downloaded the database records from there on this case and on Garcia's previous convictions. This information is current as of July 26, 2000. Note that the indicated dates are the court filing dates - not the offense or conviction dates.
Updates on Mr. Garcia. Updated Jun 29, 2000.
See Joe's letter information page.
Directions on how to get to the Sandoval County courthouse.
Here's a copy of a bill headed for the New Mexico Legislature dealing with repeat felony DWI drivers. It outlines significantly stronger penalties for repeat DWI's.
Here's a special thank-you in here for the MADD chapters both in New Mexico and Arizona. MADD representatives have provided us invaluable legal information and emotional support, making an extremely difficult situation a little more bearable.
Our friends, Micha and Carl have been some of the closest people to this, and to us during these very trying times. No one should ever be asked to do so much, but they have been wonderful, caring and supportive during this entire ordeal. I wish everyone in the world would have friends as good as them.
Sonya has also been wonderful with emotional support, keeping track of business and estate issues, and keeping up with the criminal case. All of these things tend to be thankless jobs, but she's helped immensely and deserves our gratitude. Stacey's very lucky to have such a wonderful sister. Losing Russ and Mary has been very hard for both of them, and the fact that Sonya is actually able to function so well under such stress is a real tribute to her strength.
It's not easy going through all of this. The closer we are to it, the more it hurts. Thanks to all of you for the kind words in your letters, visits and calls. It all helps.
As time goes on, it becomes very clear that what matters in this world is your friends. Don't lose touch with any of them.
The memorial service for Russ and Mary was held at the United Church of Los Alamos on Thursday, November 11, 1999 at 2:00 p.m.
We had Russ and Mary's bodies cremated. Details are still sketchy on the burial service, although we know we will inter some of the ashes at Guaje Pines in Los Alamos. We would like to save some of the ashes for scattering at some of the more special places where they shared their lives with us.
Russ and Mary had many diverse hobbies, activities, and interests, and we're still trying to find the best ways to memorialize their lives. They really were special people, and well loved by many. It'll be hard to come up with fitting tributes.
What's it like to lose people you love? Here's my attempt to put those feelings into words.
A special last note: Drunk driving is not an accident. To call such a senseless criminal act an accident does a disservice to those cases where it really was the hand of fate. In this case two loving people were killed through the thoughtless, conscious act of another. It was a drunk driving collision that killed Russ and Mary, and the act was murder.
