SUN Staff Report
A prominent Santa Fe lawyer allegedly struck and killed a pedestrian with his car early Wednesday (11/26) morning while a State Police officer was riding with him as a passenger.
When Carlos Fierro, 36, was pulled over following the accident, there were indications that he was driving while intoxicated, Santa Fe Police Deputy Chief Aric Wheeler said.
The pedestrian, a 46-year-old male, was severely injured during the accident and died at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Wheeler said.
Although Fierro was initially charged with inflicting great bodily harm with a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident, those charges will be modified to reflect vehicular homicide, Wheeler said. Fierro was a former staffer for U.S. Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) and a candidate for the state Public Regulation Commission in 2004.
Wheeler said the car was carrying a male passenger who was not arrested and is not facing charges. State Police spokesman Peter Olson confirmed that Sgt. Alfred Lovato, originally of La Madera, was a passenger in a car involved in a fatal accident early Wednesday morning. Lovato has been placed on administrative leave, Olson said.
Wheeler said officers were patrolling the downtown area when they found the severely injured pedestrian at the corner of South Guadalupe and Montezuma Streets. The man had been crossing east to west when he was hit, and the car fled the area, Wheeler said.
Wheeler said witnesses provided police with information about the make, model and color of the car involved, and within two minutes that car was stopped at the corner of Grant and Marcy Streets.
There were indications that Fierro was driving under the influence, and he was taken to St. Vincent Hospital for a blood test, Wheeler said. Results from such tests can take six weeks.
According to an online database of court records, a man with the same name and birthdate as Fierro was charged in Albuquerque Metropolitan Court in 1997 with driving drunk and driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Those charges were dismissed, according to the database.
Lovato is the brother State Police Captain Daniel Lovato who heads the District 7 office based in Española. When contacted early Wednesday afternoon, Daniel Lovato said he hadn’t talked to his brother yet.
“It is an unfortuante set of circumstances, but I don’t want to comment on hearsay,” Capt. Lovato said.