A 19-year-old Ohkay Owingeh man, originally charged with two felonies for a drunk driving car crash into a tree with his underage girlfriend, pleaded down to a single charge of drunk driving.

Ivan Orozco-Rodriguez pleaded guilty to the drunk driving charge on Nov. 5 in a plea deal approved by prosecutor Kent Wahlquist and accepted by Rio Arriba Magistrate Court Judge Joseph Madrid.

New Mexico State Police Officer Hunter Griego initially charged Orozco-Rodriguez with great bodily harm by vehicle while intoxicated and child abuse resulting in great bodily harm on Aug. 15, following the crash at County Road 56 and State Road 74.

Wahlquist dismissed the child abuse charged and pleaded down the great bodily harm by vehicle while intoxicated to first offense drunk driving.

If Orozco–Rodriguez completes his 394 days of probation without any problems, the drunk driving charge will be dismissed, per the terms of a deferred sentence, according to the judgment and sentence.

The only other state case for him is from April, when he was charged with speeding 16-20 mph over the limit.

A compliance hearing was set for Feb. 17.

The Case

Griego wrote in a criminal complaint that when he got to the scene of the crash, Orozco-Rodriguez was screaming outside of the vehicle, surrounded by friends and family, while a girl was being strapped onto a backboard. Griego did not write the age of the girl in court documents, just noting that she is under 18.

There were open containers of alcohol inside Orozco-Rodriguez’s crashed 2005 Subaru and he had a head wound that was “bleeding profusely,” Griego wrote.

Signs that Orozco-Rodriguez was drunk included slurred speech, he smelled like alcohol and swayed from side to side, the officer wrote.

Orozco-Rodriguez told Griego that the crash happened when he tried to kiss the girl and that earlier in the day, they had been drinking at the mall. However, Griego determined Orozco-Rodriguez lied about the timeline he gave because his mother said he left the house at 5 p.m. to go to Santa Fe. He told the officer they were at the mall at 2 p.m.

Griego rode with both of them to the hospital. The girl fell in and out of consciousness and was screaming that it was “not his fault” and also screaming that they were both to blame for the crash.

The girl suffered a “sterna fracture” and reported that it felt like her heart was being penetrated by a bone or she was having extreme heartburn.