Brothers James, 11, Isaih, 9, and Cody Chopito, 7, (upside down) roughhouse while enjoying the spring weather and the start of spring break Friday afternoon in Gallup. Gallup-McKinley schools are on spring break this week.

Photo by Jeff Jones

Passengers begged speeding driver to stop

Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — As suspected drunk driver Johnny Caballero raced through the streets of Gallup on March 13, passengers in his pickup pleaded with him to stop before he hurt someone.

Minutes later, Caballero's vehicle ran a red light and plowed into another vehicle being driven by Ray Hobb of Navajo, N.M., killing him, his wife and 8-month-old baby.

City police officials who were involved in the high-speed pursuit of Caballero also said in police documents given to the Gallup Independent Monday that they did not see Caballero put his brakes on in an attempt to avoid the collision.

The 19-page report, which was part of the investigation now being done by the state police, summarized reports by city police who were involved in the pursuit, as well as details of statements by various witnesses.

When they saw they were being pursued by police Margaret Caballero and Carmelita Jojola, passengers in Johnny Caballero's vehicle, said they begged the driver to stop before he hurt someone.

Jojola said she was told by the suspect to be quiet.

Margaret Caballero, sister of the suspect, went into a little more detail, saying the three were at the Esquire Bar when Johnny Caballero said it was time to go. Margaret Caballero, who lives in Window Rock, said she thought her brother was going to give them a ride to their motel.

He started toward town with his headlights off and that's when they were observed by a police car.

"She knew the officer was trying to stop them. She told Johnny to stop! What are you doing? She got scared. She told Johnny, you might run into somebody or hurt somebody. He just kept going," the report of the interview with Margaret Caballero said.

"Johnny then took off real fast going through the gears. At that point, she got real scared and begged Johnny to stop. She told Johnny to stop and let them out. He wouldn't do it. He just told her to shut up in Navajo. He ran some red lights. It just happened so fast, she couldn't really remember the wreck," the report said.

The first officer to notice the Caballero vehicle was Tod L. Heaton, who gave this account of the seven minutes the pursuit took.

He first observed the Caballero pickup at about 9:17 p.m., traveling west across from 606 E. Highway 66. He noticed the headlights were off and attempted to stop the vehicle.

He and officer Michael Mitchell attempted to block the Caballero vehicle at the intersection of Aztec and McKinley, but the vehicle accelerated and turned north onto McKinley "nearly striking Mitchell's patrol car."

Heaton said he could hear the wheels of the Caballero vehicle spinning as the driver accelerated.

The Caballero vehicle "then proceeded north on McKinley Drive until Coal Avenue, where (the suspect) ran the stop sign as it turned right, east on Coal Avenue," the state police report said.

It then proceeded northeast on Coal Avenue to where the street merges with Highway 66 "running the stop sign and nearly striking Sergeant Gerald Tholund's patrol car."

Caballero then proceeded east at a high rate of speed, pulling away from the city patrol units. He ran a red light at 66 and Ford, forcing other vehicles in and near the intersection to brake sharply to avoid a collision.

The suspect vehicle continued east on Highway 66 still accelerating.

Heaton's statement said that as the Caballero vehicle got closer to the Mustang Convenience Store at 1223 E. Highway 66, he saw two people crossing the street.

Caballero's vehicle "continued to accelerate, nearly striking the pedestrians who ran to get out of the way," the report stated. The vehicle then moved into the left lane and began weaving in and out of traffic, ending up in the eastbound traffic lane. Heaton said it appeared as if the vehicle was continuing to accelerate.

Heaton had slowed down when the Caballero vehicle nearly struck down the pedestrians and was now attempting to catch up. As he neared the area where Albertson's is located, he looked down at his speedometer and noticed he was going 95 mph with the Caballero vehicle getting further and further ahead.

As the Caballero vehicle approached Highway 66 and Boardman, Heaton said, he could see cars in front slowing down as the light turned yellow. Heaton said he, too, began to slow down.

He then saw the light turn red for the eastbound traffic, but the Caballero vehicle went through the red light and struck the Hobb family pickup just behind the driver's door. Heaton said he did not see any brake lights.

The report by Mitchell and Tholund, who were also involved in the pursuit, agreed with Heaton's report, saying they also saw no attempt by Caballero to slow down or brake as he ran through the red light at Boardman.

As the Caballero pickup approached Boardman, Tholund said, he was advised by police officers that the suspect vehicle was going 100 mph and accelerating.

A state police officer who arrived after the crash said when he went up to the Caballero vehicle, he saw the suspect leaning forward with his head on the steering wheel. When he asked the driver what his name was, the response was, "Wilford." At that time a passenger in the car yelled, "Not, it's not. His name is Johnny Caballero."

The officer said he noticed as he approached the Caballero vehicle that the driver had a "large flab of skin just hanging from his forehead and blood about his face and arms, dripping into his lap."

The report said Caballero, of 2800 E. Aztec in Gallup, has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide. Jojola lives in Navajo, N.M.

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Navajo Council will consider helmet laws
Tohajiilee gambling on agenda

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation Council is looking at new tribal laws requiring motorcycle drivers under age 18 to wear safety helmets.

This was one of the items placed on the spring session of the council's agenda by the Ethics and Rules Committee Monday. The spring session will run April 17-21. The council will also be asked to override Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye's veto that would allow casino-style gambling at the government's initiative. The legislation would allow the Tohajiileeh (Caoncito) Chapter to pursue a casino and resort development on Interstate 40, west of Albuquerque.

Many other proposed changes to the Navajo Nation Code also will be considered.

One would amend the Sovereign Immunity Act for economic development purposes.

Another would allow a council delegate such as McKinley County Commissioner Ben Shelly to continue to serve as an elected county official.

But another would outlaw Navajo school board members from holding any other elected office city, county, state or tribal. This would affect delegates such as Young Jeff Tom of the Mariano Lake and Smith Lake Chapters.

The proposal, requested by the council's Education Committee, also includes removing a school board member if he or she misses three consecutive regular meetings without proper justification or forbidding school boards to sue the tribe with Navajo Nation money an outcome of an action early in the 1990s by the Ramah board.

Two matters concern the Judicial Branch.

One clarifies the oversight role of the Legislative Branch's Judiciary Committee. The other changes the requirements for district and Supreme Court judges to receive retirement benefits. This change would require judges to work more years before qualifying for retirement pay equal to their final year's salary.

Held over from the winter session in January were:

Adopting the Navajo Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Adopting a Political Activities Act.

Dipping into the Undesignated Reserve Fund for supplemental appropriations of $3.7 million for three programs which would just about wipe it out.

The fund is supposed to contain enough money to operate the tribal government for six months, which would be at least $45 million.

In addition to the student winter salaries for the Public Employment Program, the money would go for meeting stipends of the district grazing committees and the Eastern Agency Land Board.

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Police still holding back original accident report
DA Baber cites O.J. Simpson case

Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The specter of O. J. Simpson hangs heavily in the air as the debate over the incident report for the Hobb family three of whom were killed in a high-speed car accident continued Monday.

Gallup city police and the district's attorney office were still refusing to turn over the incident report in connection with the police pursuit of suspected drunk driver Johnny Caballero and the crash that left a Navajo, N.M., husband, wife and their baby daughter dead.

But by mid-morning, the Gallup Independent had obtained from an unnamed source 19 pages of state police documents detailing various aspects of the case and giving a narrative of what had occurred on March 13 from the time the police noticed Caballero driving with his headlights off at 9:17 p.m. until the crash some seven minutes later on Historic Route 66 and Boardman (see separate story).

"That's sounds like the incident report," said District Attorney Mary Helen Baber, who, along with officials of the New Mexico State Police, said they weren't happy to see the paper have documents that not only listed the names of witnesses of the incident but gave a summary of what they told police.

"That's not the city police's original incident report," said Bob Zollinger, publisher of the Independent, who said he would continue to put pressure on law enforcement officials to turn over the original incident report. He said state law decrees the incident report is a public document and requires that it be made available to the press.

When Capt. Glenn Thomas, head of the Gallup district state police, heard the Independent had the report, he questioned where the paper got the copy. When the paper refused to say, Thomas indicated it probably came from one of the victims of the crash, adding that state law required police to turn over these reports to victims, but not to the press.

Throughout the day, Baber stressed that her position had not changed and that neither she nor the city police were going to be forced to release documents they felt would compromise prosecution of Caballero.

"We do not want this to become like what happened in the O. J. Simpson case," she said.

She was referring to the infamous case four years ago that engulfed the nation as Simpson went on trial for the murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. O.J. Simpson was later acquitted in a criminal case but was found guilty in a civil suit.

Baber said she took to heart the media frenzy over many of the witnesses the prosecution planned to call in the Simpson case and the fact that many of these witnesses became tainted because of their interviews with the press.

"We don't want to see statements of the witnesses in this case in the paper before police have a chance to conduct their own interviews," Baber said. All a defense attorney had to do when one of those witnesses was called to the stand was ask whether he or she had read the interviews of the other witnesses in the paper before giving their formal statements to police, Baber said.

"Media frenzy will not dictate the course of our investigation," she added.

The reports the Independent received Monday were part of the state police investigation. Although they referred to the original reports made by the Gallup police officers involved in the pursuit Tod L. Heaton, Michael Mitchell, Gerald Tholund and Franklin Boyd and summarizes them, the state police reports did not include the complete text of the original Gallup police reports.

Those complete reports, however, "are the reports that the Gallup police must, under state law, make public," said Zollinger. "By refusing to release these documents, all Baber and the city police are doing is allowing two attorneys one working for the Gallup Independent and the other being paid by the city to walk away with a fistful of dollars from the city treasury for just a couple of week's work."

Under state law, if a newspaper takes a local government to court for not releasing a document that is later labeled as public by the courts, the city must pay the cost of the paper's attorney. Zollinger said this could run between $15,000 and $20,000.

Pat Rogers, the Albuquerque attorney who will represent the Gallup Independent if the case leads to a lawsuit, said the state public records law requires members of the public to have access to records "even when the district attorney would rather keep the documents secret."

But Baber said all of this talk about keeping things secret doesn't make any sense to her.

"There's nothing secret in the reports," she said. The reports the Independent now has are basically what the incident report states, she added. In fact, she said, the reports the paper now has give a great deal more information than the original police report does.

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Should elected officials have 2-term limits?

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation Council will be asked to end term limits for a variety of elected officials when it holds a special session April 6 and 7.

The request will ask the two-term limit for school boards, district grazing committees, farm boards, the Eastern Agency Land Board and the Board of Election Supervisors be eliminated. Chapter officers and council delegates have no term limits.

But Council Delegate George Tolth of the Baca-Prewitt and Casamero Lake chapters said Monday he opposes the change...

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Woman beaten for wanting to go to church

Staff Report

GAMERCO — A Gamerco woman fled with her children Sunday night after her husband kicked her in the back for wanting to attend church, police said.

Johanna Chinana, 21, said her husband told her he was angry and began punching the wall, causing him to cut his fist.

Police provided her with a domestic violence packet and explained procedures for filing charges against her husband. She told police she has filled out the paper work before...

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N.M. Legislature asked to approve new Indian gambling agreements

SANTA FE (AP) — The Legislature returns to work today in a special session that could determine whether New Mexico resolves a simmering dispute over Indian gambling.

A panel of lawmakers recommended Monday that the House and Senate approve a revised gambling agreement that would lower the share of casino proceeds that tribes must pay the state.

The state would collect an estimated $27 million next year from tribal casinos under the proposal...

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Cibola County could get old Apco building

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — The old Apco building owners want a tax write off and are offering the building and the three acres it is on to a nonprofit entity for a fraction of its appraised value.

Bud Gunderson, president of the Cibola Foundation, approached the Cibola County Commission at a special meeting Monday to discuss taking the old building.

"The owner is responsive to a bid lower than list (price)," Gunderson said. He said County Economic Development Director Vanessa Gray has several clients interested in the place, one in particular, a telemarketing firm...

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Local groups work to find shelter for homeless

Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer

GALLUP — For a week, Sandy has been sleeping in her car.

She left her abusive husband's house five years ago and lived in several apartments over the years, until last week, when the owners of the house Sandy rented wanted their home back. Sandy couldn't find a place to go to.

She talked to the Independent about her homelessness. She asked that her name not be used, so she will be called Sandy. As she talked, she showed both her distress and her hopes, knowing she was in a tough situation, but trying to hold onto her optimism...

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27 illegals nabbed in 2 separate stops

Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Police captured 27 illegal aliens Monday just before 2 a.m. after two vans were spotted weaving near the 26 mile marker on Interstate 40. The two stops were unrelated.

New Mexico State Police Capt. Glenn Thomas described the suspect's vehicles as "old, beat up vans they can pick up for cheap" a pattern police have seen in recent arrests of illegal aliens.

Thomas said the first vehicle stopped was a blue 1984 Ford van with Washington license plates. The van loaded with 13 people was traveling from Phoenix, Az to an unknown city in Colorado, he said...

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First sex torture trial delayed

SOCORRO, N.M. (AP) — The first trial of David Parker Ray, accused of kidnapping and sexually torturing three women, has been delayed at least a week because Ray has been hospitalized since Friday with a heart condition, prosecutors said.

The delay gives attorneys for news media extra time to oppose a judge's ruling closing the jury selection process to the public and the media.

Ray, 60, is accused of kidnapping and sexually torturing the women at his residence in Elephant Butte, in southern New Mexico. State District Judge Neil Mertz moved the trial up north to Rio Arriba County because of pretrial publicity...

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