Witness: Driver was reckless before 2019 collision that killed hip-hop artist

Jun. 23—Diego Pichardo was speeding down West Alameda Street in his black Chevrolet pickup, passing vehicles on the wrong side of the road, moments before the crash that killed an Albuquerque hip-hop artist, witnesses testified Tuesday as Pichardo's vehicular homicide trial got underway.

The Santa Fe man is accused of driving drunk Nov. 3, 2019, and colliding with a silver Ford sedan driven by 30-year-old Andrew Martinez, who had performed under the moniker Wake Self.

Public defenders had laid the groundwork early for a defense based on an argument that someone else may have been driving 26-year-old Pichardo's truck. His current attorney, Arturo Nieto, suggested the same during his opening statements, telling jurors many of the facts of the case were undisputed, but "there is almost no evidence that Mr. Pichardo was driving the black truck."

According to previous reports of the incident, at the intersection of West Alameda and Camino Alire, at least one witnesses said another truck had picked someone up from the scene and sped away before police arrived.

None of the witnesses who took the stand Tuesday spoke about seeing a second truck.

One of the state's first witnesses, Gabriel Chacon, said he had seen the black truck doing what appeared to be "doughnuts" at the downtown intersection of West San Francisco and Sandoval streets before it passed him on the wrong side of the road — so close it almost scraped his truck.

When he came across the scene of the crash a few moments later, Chacon said, he recognized the vehicle as one that belonged to his co-worker at the Bull Ring, a downtown restaurant. He saw the co-worker, Pichardo, lying in the street.

"I immediately ran to Diego," Chacon said. "He was bleeding from his head."

Chacon said he walked Pichardo to the sidewalk and had him sit on a wall before attempting to attend to Martinez and his passenger, who were both injured.

Martinez died from his injuries three days later.

Pichardo asked Chacon to take him home, Chacon told jurors, but he didn't. He said Pichardo "smelled a little bit like alcohol."

Amanda Jackson, described by prosecutor Tony Long as the first person to arrive at the crash scene, said she saw a man crawling out of the black truck and asked him if there was anyone else in the vehicle.

"He said 'yes, but they ran,' " Jackson testified.

She said she didn't see anyone else near the black truck or running away from it.

Pichardo — also identified in some documents as Pichardo-Rodriguez — had a criminal history that included two previous DWI arrests, court records show.

Albuquerque police pulled him over in December 2017 on suspicion of driving 15 mph in a 25 mph zone, according to court documents. The arresting officer reported Pichardo had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and smelled of alcohol; he also performed poorly on field sobriety tests, the report said.

He was charged with DWI, but prosecutors dropped the case after a defense attorney said the state had lost video of the incident from a camera on the officer's belt.

On June 22, 2019, just five months before the fatal crash, Santa Fe police arrested Pichardo after responding to a report that a black Chevy truck had collided with a guardrail near the Regal Santa Fe Stadium 14 on Zafarano Drive. Officers found him asleep in the driver's seat of his truck, which was parked in a nearby lot.

Pichardo is scheduled to stand trial in that case in July 2022.

He also is the defendant in a pending wrongful death suit filed against him by Martinez's passenger, Kevin Allende, who suffered serious injuries.

Pichardo's trial in the criminal case is scheduled to continue through June 29.