Mothers plead guilty in 2021 crash that killed their children

Two women who each lost a child in a 2021 drunken-driving crash may soon lose their freedom as well.

Each woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to a variety of criminal charges and faces decades in prison as a result of the crash on a Big I entrance ramp that killed two children and injured two others.

The fatal crash occurred after Danielle Ortiz asked her friend, Alexis Martinez, to drive her and her children home after the two women had been drinking and arguing into the early morning hours of March 30, 2021.

Martinez’s 7-year-old daughter and Ortiz’s 2-month-old son were killed when the car Martinez was driving at high speed “went airborne” and slammed into a concrete barrier, prosecutors said. Both children died at the scene.

Martinez and Ortiz each also had one child who was injured in the crash.

Martinez pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death, vehicular homicide and two counts of great bodily injury by vehicle.

Ortiz pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of great bodily injury by vehicle. Second Judicial District Judge Stan Whitaker accepted their pleas Wednesday in back-to-back virtual hearings.

Martinez faces up to 36 years in prison and Ortiz up to 32 years, according to their plea agreements. Their sentencing hearings have not been scheduled.

Martinez faces a minimum of 12 years in prison. Her attorney, Megan Mitsunaga, said she will argue at the sentencing hearing that Martinez should receive less than the maximum 36 years allowed under the plea agreement.

“We intend to present mitigation evidence at sentencing,” Mitsunaga said.

Albuquerque police responded around 3:20 a.m. to a crash on the northbound entrance ramp from westbound Interstate 40 to Interstate 25, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

Investigators found that Martinez was speeding on the ramp when the car “left the roadway, became airborne” and crashed into a concrete barrier, the complaint said.

Ortiz told police that she and Martinez had been drinking at Martinez’s house around midnight when the two began arguing, the complaint said.

Martinez initially refused to give Ortiz a ride home, protesting that she “loves her children” and didn’t want to drive drunk with her children in the car, Ortiz told police.

But Ortiz was “able to convince” Martinez, and the two loaded their children into the car, with two riding in car seats, one in a seat belt, and one riding on the floor in front of the passenger seat, the complaint said.

Ortiz said she and Martinez began arguing again as the two were driving west on I-40 and Martinez began driving “very fast” as they entered the I-25 on-ramp and lost control of the car, a detective wrote.