SANTA FE, N.M. – A woman accused of lying to police and causing a wrong-way crash that killed a Santa Fe police officer and retired Las Vegas firefighter is closer to learning her fate.

On Monday, a jury heard a full day of testimony in the trial of Jeannine Jaramillo.

“This is a unique thing. This is not something we deal with on a daily basis, kidnapping, specifically as a police officer for 14 years, I can’t think of many times that I dealt with that,” said Sgt. John DeBaca with the Santa Fe Police Department. 

DeBaca explained why the March 2022 911 call for the kidnapping of a woman was taken so seriously.

“After that the officers, as many officers that were available, started responding in that direction because of the severity of that call,” said DeBaca. 

State prosecutors called DeBaca to the stand Monday in the murder trial against Jaramillo. She’s charged with two counts of murder, aggravated fleeing, reckless driving and making a false report.

“There was limited information because this was a third party caller who just said, ‘Hey, woman shouting there’s a guy with a knife in the car. Car takes off and as that’s happening she’s shouting call the police,’” DeBaca said. 

DeBaca was the patrol sergeant that day and in charge of overseeing what turned into a chase with the car involved in the alleged kidnapping.

While on the stand, prosecutors showed dash cam video of the chase and asked DeBaca why they continued to chase the car with limited information, especially when it started going the wrong way on I-25.

“So when you’re comparing this to our policy, we’re talking about a circumstance where the ultimate threshold would be death. And what you have to understand in this circumstance is death being the threshold is equal to not only everyone that is on the highway, but it is equal to the person that is potentially being kidnapped,” said DeBaca. 

DeBaca testified any of the officers involved could have decided to end the chase.

We also heard from Alexis Jenkins, who got hit as she drove back to Colorado Springs after a girl’s trip in Santa Fe.

“Shortly after pulling over, I was still slowing down at the time, before I knew it the police vehicles were right on top of me. I heard a loud explosion and then my car got hit. Then, I got hit head-on, which caused my car to spin 90 degrees,” said Jenkins. 

She told the jury it all happened very quickly.

The trial is expected to last the rest of the week.