Man arrested after fatally striking pedestrian in Northeast Albuquerque

An Albuquerque driver is accused of running into and killing a woman who was walking on the shoulder of Tramway late Wednesday.

Jonathan Gallegos, 38, is charged with knowingly leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death after fatally injuring Jasmine Kelley, 25, who had been walking with a friend.

Gallegos told police he drank a 20-ounce beer about 20 minutes before the crash, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court.

Investigators are awaiting the results of a blood test, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Rebecca Atkins said in a news release.

In October 2007, Gallegos pleaded guilty to DWI, according to court records.

Officers received the call about a crash near Tramway and Cloudview just before 10:30 p.m. When they arrived, Kelley’s friend told them the two were walking south along Tramway, holding a flashlight and approaching Cloudview, when a gray or black SUV hit Kelley, then drove off, the complaint states.

A couple of minutes later, OnStar was notified of a vehicle involved in a collision parked in the 500 block of Tramway NE, near Lomas Verdes, police said. At 10:34 p.m., police received a call about a man “screaming that he had just killed somebody” and that a silver SUV was parked on the block with “heavy-end damage and total airbag deployment,” the complaint states.

Police said Kelley’s friend identified Gallegos as the driver in a photo officers showed her.

Just after 11 p.m., Gallegos’ friend called dispatch and told them Gallegos said he hit someone and was going home to turn himself in, according to the complaint.

When police arrived at Gallegos’ home, he told them the SUV was his, and said “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody... I didn’t know what happened. All of (a) sudden somebody got in front of my (expletive) car, man, and it happened and I freaked out.”