Trial opens for teen in traffic accident

CONEJOS â€" The trial of the 18-year-old girl accused of causing three deaths in an Aug. 14 car accident in Capulin with her reckless driving opened Tuesday.

  Defense attorneys for Pamela Maestas pinned the blame for the accident on a pedestrian who jumped in the road, while Deputy District Attorney Rayna Gokli pointed to the 90-mph to 100-mph speeds at which the teen drove.

  "She was going way too fast for the conditions," Gokli said during the opening of the bench trial presided over by Senior Judge Peter Booth.

  The posted speed limit on Colorado 15 as it runs through the small town is 35 mph.

  Maestas was charged as a juvenile with three counts of felony vehicular homicide, three counts of felony reckless manslaughter and a felony charge of vehicular assault.

  She also faces three counts of careless driving resulting in death, one count of reckless driving and another count of reckless driving resulting in injury, all of which are traffic offenses. 

  But Public Defender David Lipka would point to Alejandro Quintana, a bystander who jumped in front of the truck carrying his friends. 

  Quintana, 19, faces a June 26 trial for three counts of criminally negligent homicide.

  "But for Mr. Quintana's actions that night, this accident never would have happened," Lipka said, noting that the highway through town is straight. 

  The truck, after missing Quintana, swerved off the road into a stone fence and rolled twice, taking out two utility poles and hitting two parked cars. 

  Capt. George Dingfelder, a 16-year veteran of the Colorado State Patrol, said he was the second from his agency on site.

  "It was one of the worst, most destructive crash scenes that I have seen in my 16 years," he testified.

  Three of the truck's passengers would be ejected during the accident.

  Ermidia Gonzales, 16, and Derek David Martinez, 28, died on scene, while Jason Rousey, 29, died en route to the hospital.

  John Rousey, who wore a T-shirt Tuesday memorializing his son Jason, said he was awakened from bed by one of his son's friends and went to the wrecked truck where he found Maestas pinned under the steering wheel.

  Tiffany Atencio, Rousey's sister, and two cousins Clarence Rousey, III, and Nicole Barela, testified likewise.

  Both Atencio and John Rousey would testify to speaking to John Rousey before he was loaded into the ambulance. 

  Firefighters and medical personnel, who were delayed in getting to the truck because of a sagging power line, would not see Maestas pinned behind the wheel, although they would point to her being in the front seat upon their arrival. 

  Maestas, and another passenger, 16-year old Nakoa Martinez, of Capulin, were both hospitalized following the accident.

  The trial is scheduled to last three more days.