Featured DWI
Julia Ann Rafael
Nov. 16, 5 p.m.
Aggravated DWI (Third)
Two people reportedly found a 38-year-old woman passed out in the back of her vehicle while blocking the entrance of a fire station in Yah-ta-hey.
Deputy Frank Villa Jr. responded around 5 p.m. Saturday to reports of an intoxicated woman who told a passerby she wanted to get in the driver seat of a vehicle that was parked in front of the Navajo Estates Fire Department, according to the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office.
Shortly afterward, Villa approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and noticed nobody was sitting in the driver’s seat. The vehicle was reportedly running with lights on the dashboard and keys in the ignition when he looked inside the window.
According to Villa’s report, he could see the woman, who was later identified as Julia Rafael, sitting in the backseat of the vehicle. He could allegedly smell the heavy odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside the vehicle.
Rafael appeared heavily intoxicated and was asked multiple times to step out of the vehicle, eventually complying, according to Villa’s eport.
She said she was coming from Casamero Lake and “just wanted to go home to Casamero Lake.”
“I told Julia, she did not make any sense. Julia was headed west on State Highway 264. Casamero Lake is near Thoreau, forty miles in the other direction,” Villa said in his report.
Rafael could not say where she was coming from or how much she had to drink, but four open containers were found allegedly inside of the vehicle. When asked to take a field sobriety test, she declined and was placed under arrest for driving while under the influence.
Villa placed Rafael in his patrol vehicle and read her the the New Mexico Implied Consent Act. She allegedly talked over him the entire time, and would not answer his questions.
Rafael was arrested on suspicion of aggravated DWI, open container possession and driving while license revoked. This is her third DWI-related offense, and a pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 17.
Name: Robert Chavez
Age: 38
Arrested: Nov. 17
Charge: DWI
Status: Pretrial hearing on Dec. 19
Name: Levi Guy Billy
Age: 37
Arrested: Nov. 17
Charge: Aggravated DWI
Status: Pretrial hearing on Dec. 10
Name: Ricardo Zarate
Age: 46
Arrested: Nov. 16
Charge: Aggravated DWI
Status: Pretrial hearing on Dec. 17
Name: Emmanuel McSweeney
Age: 20
Arrested: Nov. 13
Charge: DWI
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Age: 23
Arrested: Nov. 13
Charge: Aggravated DWI
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Staff Reports
