A woman charged in a fatal crash with a motorcyclist last year while she was allegedly high on cannabis refused to participate in a hearing this week with her trial looming in two weeks.
Anna Cordova, 34, is scheduled for trial on March 28 on a charges including vehicular homicide while driving under the influence in the April 2 death of Danny Archuleta, 54, on Tramway NE.
Cordova also is charged with great bodily harm by vehicle for seriously injuring Archuleta’s passenger.
Cordova has remained in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center since her arrest in April. She told an MDC officer on Tuesday that she would not emerge from her cell to attend a remote hearing before 2nd Judicial District Judge Joseph Montano.
Montano scheduled a hearing on Wednesday to decide how to move forward with the case. The judge also said he could compel Cordova’s attendance at that hearing — in restraints, if necessary.
“The next step is up to the judge,” said Nancy Laflin, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Cordova’s attorney, Richard Pugh, declined to comment about the case.
Prosecutors allege Cordova was driving a GMC pickup under the influence of cannabis on April 2 when she veered into the path of Archuleta’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle on Tramway near the La Luz trail turnoff.
A witness told police that she saw a pickup veer into the oncoming lane of traffic shortly before the fatal collision, prosecutors wrote in a pretrial detention motion.
The witness lost sight of the pickup behind a hill, but moments later “the witness saw a motorcycle drive by without a rider,” prosecutors wrote.
The witness also told a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy that some 30 to 40 minutes before the crash, she saw the pickup occupied by a man and a woman at the La Luz trail parking lot emitting “an overwhelming smell of marijuana,” according to a Metropolitan Court criminal complaint.
Another witness told deputies the female driver of the pickup was holding a pipe to her mouth and attempting to light it while driving, the complaint said.
