GRANTS, N.M. – In September 2021 a woman named Jeannine Jaramillo allegedly led the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office on a highspeed, wrong-way chase down Interstate 40. She had reported to dispatchers that she was kidnapped at knifepoint and was being held hostage. When CCSO managed to stop the vehicle, they only found Jaramillo inside.
Jaramillo told CCSO deputies that she was held hostage by a man in a red shirt and black pants.
“Then he got up and he put [the knife] to my neck and he told me to. He told me that he was going to kill me if I tried to stop again because I tried to stop sir,” Jaramillo can be heard telling CCSO deputies after they stopped the vehicle. Deputies did not believe her, though, as there was no one else in the vehicle with her.
After being arrested, the 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office chose not prosecute Jaramillo, instead throwing the case back to the sheriff’s office to refile. CCSO was given a deadline to refile the charges against Jaramillo by the end of March 2022.
In between the time prosecutors chose not to take action and CCSO’s deadline to refile, Jaramillo went on a very similar trip to Santa Fe, N.M.
Jaramillo travelled to Santa Fe in March, where she allegedly told dispatchers she was being held captive by a man in a red shirt and black pants. She alleged the man had a knife. This is very similar to the description Jaramillo gave the Cibola County Regional Dispatch in October.
The New Mexico State Police became involved, and a wrong-way, high-speed pursuit began on Interstate 25. As has been common in Cibola County lately, this highspeed pursuit ended in a violent crash. When the dust settled from this crash, a New Mexico State Police Officer was dead, a retired firefighter from Las Vegas, N.M., was dead, and Jaramillo was arrested for an alleged hoax.
Just like with the Cibola incident, investigators could not find a man matching the description she gave police.
Days after the Santa Fe incident, CCSO refiled charges against Jaramillo. Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace said the department was always going to refile the charges, and that it was coincidence that their deadline to refile was shortly after the crash that killed a state police officer and a retired fire fighter.
Guilty in Cibola
On August 1, Jaramillo was seen in the courtroom of the Honorable Amanda Sanchez Villalobos, who accepted a plea deal between Jaramillo and prosecutors.
The deal meant Jaramillo would plead guilty to the Aggravated Fleeing of a Law Enforcement Officer, and the Unlawful Taking of a Motor Vehicle (1st Offense). The plea deal meant that the state would not pursue charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance (Felony).
Jaramillo will spend 18 months in prison, with credit for 105 days already served in jail. The court encouraged Jaramillo to seek substance abuse counseling despite dismissing the only drug charge.
Jaramillo’s legal jeopardy is not yet over. She still faces two murder charges in connection to the deaths of the NMSP Officer and retired firefighter that died during the wrong-way speed down I-25. A trial date has not yet been set in this case.