Staff Reports

GRANTS – At around 7 pm on Oct. 11, New Mexico State Police investigated a double-fatality crash on Interstate 40 at mile-marker 84 in Grants.

The initial investigation indicated an Infinity passenger car traveling eastbound on I-40 was driving erratically and lost control. The vehicle entered the median, rolled, and entered the westbound lanes, colliding into a Toyota vehicle traveling westbound.

The driver and passenger in the Toyota vehicle sustained fatal injuries in the crash and were pronounced deceased on scene. Their identities are being withheld until the next of kin has been notified.

The driver of the Infinity passenger car, Aaron Hazard, 35, of Alta Loma...

Staff Reports

Diaz prosecuted as part of “worst of the worst” anti-violence initiative

ALBUQUERQUE – Dexter Diaz, 32, of Gallup, was sentenced in federal court in Albuquerque on Oct. 11 to 120 months in prison for his conviction on a methamphetamine trafficking charge.

Diaz will be on supervised release for five years following his prison sentence.

The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez, Special Agent in Charge Will R. Glaspy of the DEA’s El Paso Division, McKinley County Sheriff Ronald Silversmith, and Chief Timothy Trimble of the Zuni Pueblo Tribal Police Department.

Diaz, whose criminal history includes felony convictions for three drug trafficking...

A mystery surrounds the Gallup High School athletic department.

A high-profile coach is no longer the head coach of the Lady Bengals’ basketball team, and the program – one of New Mexico’s most successful – stands at a crossroads, with only Superintendent Frank Chiapetti privy to the direction in which the situation is headed. And he’s keeping answers about the matter guarded.

“It’s a personnel matter,” Chiapetti said through a school-district phone receptionist Oct. 4, when the Sun asked for clarification on the matter. “You’ll have to submit a formal request to the school district’s attorney to get a copy of the letter.”

The Sun submitted a request for the...