Craig pleads guilty to murder of State Police officer

By Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The trial for Zacharia DeWitt Craig ended abruptly on Monday when Craig entered a guilty plea to 2nd-degree murder.

Lemuel Martinez, District Attorney for the 13th Judicial District that given the circumstances he believes "(we) received the best possible outcome in this case."

Originally Martinez had sought the death penalty for Craig for killing New Mexico State Police Department Officer Lloyd Aragon Sr. almost five years ago. Aragon was an immensely popular officer in the Grants sub-district.

"The critical issue we had to overcome was the defendant's mental illness and his off-again, on-again, mental competence to stand trial," Martinez said.

Craig's murder trial was being conducted in the Sandoval County Courthouse. The change of location for the trial from Grants to Bernalillo had been granted by Presiding Judge Louis P. McDonald.

Martinez also explained, "We tried to get the maximum amount of time. It would have been impossible to convict him of 1st-degree murder because his mental illness eliminates the necessary specific intent needed for 1st-degree murder. We got 2nd-degree, though."

Martinez said, "The District Attorney's Office did the best it could and believes it received the best possible outcome in this case. This has been a very important case for all of Cibola County."

He said Craig would have to serve at least 85 percent of a 30-year sentence, which would be 25 and one-half years.

Craig was 19 at the time he ran down Aragon on Aug. 1, 2001, and killed him in the median of I-40 near the State Route 6 interchange.

The incident began when Zacharia and his older brother, both of Albuquerque, allegedly stole $600 worth of an over-the-counter antihistamine from the Grants Wal-Mart store around 7 a.m., jumped into their stolen 1995 pickup truck, drove into Grants and got stopped in the 1000 block of Santa Fe Avenue.

Alert employees had chased them into the parking lot and were able to give city police a vehicle identity. While the Grants City Police Department sergeant who stopped them was busy with the older brother, Zacharia slipped into the driver's seat and fled east by himself, racing onto Interstate 40 with the city sergeant and two NMSPD officers in hot pursuit at speeds of up to 100 mph.

Aragon and another state police officer were on their way to Albuquerque early in the morning to testify at a federal drug trial. They stopped to lay down "stop sticks," panels with nails which puncture tires to stop drivers who won't halt.

Around 7:30 a.m., Craig dodged around the sticks, proceeding across the paved shoulder and went full-bore into the median. Instead of trying to dodge the pair of officers, he allegedly aimed his car directly at them, hitting Aragon head-on.

The officer's death shocked the community and the officers and staff of the agencies with whom Aragon had worked over the years.

Both his memorial service and funeral were so large they had to be conducted at Grants High School. He began his law enforcement career as a city dispatcher, later moving up to patrol officer. In 1993, he joined the state police.

He was 37 at the time and left a widow, Monica, son, Lloyd Jr., 11 years old at the time, and daughter, Adriana, 4, at the time.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci in Grants, telephone 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775 (cellular).