ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A local family is further from justice after a plea deal fell through in the murder case of their loved one.

Jeannine Jaramillo is facing charges after a wrong-way crash killed two people: a Santa Fe police officer and a retired Las Vegas, New Mexico firefighter. 

“It’s just learning how to live with a big hole in your heart every day,” Angela Gamino said. 

Angela and her family are trying to learn how to live, without one of their favorite people.  

“Once he laughed, everybody laughed. He was just the best brother, the best son, the best uncle, the best father and husband. He loved his family,” Angela recalled. 

In March 2022, police say Jaramillo called them saying she was being kidnapped. That led to a high-speed chase on I-25, which ended with Jaramillo driving the wrong way and crashing into two Santa Fe police cars and an innocent bystander’s car.

Officer Robert Duran was in one of those cars and retired Las Vegas firefighter Frank Lovato was in the other car––the crash killed them both. 

“He gave his life for someone else. He thought she was being kidnapped,” Angela said. 

Police tell us this wasn’t the first time Jaramillo lied about being kidnapped. She’s done it at least two other times. 

“That’s what’s most upsetting, is that she got away with it the first time, and her choice of making the same decision took two precious lives that day and when she should have been charged the first time around for what she did,” Angela said.  

The family was one step closer to justice, in the form of a plea deal. But it fell through, blindsiding the family.

“She decided that she wanted to go to trial,” Angela explained. 

Now, Angela says she and her family have to come to terms with that possibility. 

“It’s not going to be easy for us to drive to Santa Fe every day and sit through trial and to see things and hear things that it’s just going to rip our hearts all over again,” Angela continued. “It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll do it. We’ll be there. We’re a strong family.” 

As the family balances grief and wanting justice, they’re also trying to keep Duran’s memory alive. 

“My son, he just after the services and everything, he came, and he said, ‘Mom, I need to do more, and I need to serve.’ And I just thought, Oh my God,” Angela said.

Her son, Jakob, became an Albuquerque firefighter in his uncle’s honor. 

“He was the reason why I joined. And then now it’s it was just to show that like both of us in gear,” Jakob Gamino said as he showed a photo he edited of he and his uncle side by side in uniform. 

Jakob keeps his uncle with him at all times––keeping a photo of Duran inside his firefighter helmet.

“He’s with me with every call I go on, every shift I go on, I got a memorial tattoo on my leg, and it’s St. Michael’s. So he’s like my guardian angel, everywhere I go,” Jakob said. 

Angela says regardless of the outcome, they know her brother will be the reason Jaramillo goes to prison.