Driver charged with drunken attack on vehicle after joyride Sunday morning

Aug. 26 — A Santa Fe police officer who arrived at a Wendy's parking lot on Cerrillos Road early Sunday morning found a suspected drunk driver “lying on the curb with blood on his face and both eyes swollen,” a court document states.

Denilson Daniel Pacheco-Sanchez, 22, of Santa Fe, was charged with driving a Nissan Altima recklessly and while intoxicated, pursuing other vehicles and attempting to force them off the road.

Police said in a news release Sunday night that emergency dispatchers received four calls about aggressive driver behavior around 1:45 a.m. Sunday before officers were dispatched to the scene of a crash and fight at the fast-food restaurant.

Pacheco-Sanchez, arrested on four counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count each of driving while intoxicated and reckless driving, remained in custody Monday at the Santa Fe County Jail, where he had been booked Sunday after being treated at a local hospital for injuries police said he suffered in the fight.

A man and three women traveling in another vehicle told officers that Pacheco-Sanchez cut them off, drove in front of them and slammed on the brakes, according to a probable cause statement filed against Pacheco-Sanchez in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

The driver told police that Pacheco-Sanchez “brushed past” his vehicle, the statement said. He drove into a parking lot between a Jiffy Lube and Wendy’s on Cerrillos Road, the man said, adding that Pacheco-Sanchez also pulled into the lot, then approached his window and confronted him.

Police said in the news release that the two men fought and Pacheco-Sanchez was injured, but no one else at the scene was hurt.

Pacheco-Sanchez, who faces one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon for each person in the vehicle he is accused of hitting, initially told an officer he had not been drinking that night, according to the probable cause statement, but later said he had been drinking “all night” at the downtown bar The Matador.

Pacheco-Sanchez initially said in an interview that he was scared because he was being followed by a gray SUV as he drove south on Cerrillos Road, police wrote in the statement.

But then he “began to tell a different story, that the driver of the other vehicle was offering him drugs and he felt pressured and did not want to throw anyone under the bus,” the statement said.