Man accused of leaving accident

Quay County sheriff’s deputies booked a Clovis man into the county jail after they accused him of being involved in an injury accident on Highway 209 south of Tucumcari and walking from the scene.

Larry Lee Baca, 62, was jailed April 2 on complaints of two counts of reckless driving, resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, duty to give information and render aid and leaving the scene of an accident.

The leaving-the-scene count is a third-degree felony that can lead up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Baca was released from the county jail on his own recognizance Thursday. No attorney was listed for him in online court records.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday in Tucumcari Magistrate Court by deputy Cody Burch, officers were sent to a crash April 2 with a man trapped inside the vehicle on Highway 209 about 15 miles south of Tucumcari. En route, Burch said he saw a man, later identified as Baca, walking north about 200 yards from the crashed vehicle.

Burch stated the man in the heavily damaged vehicle, later identified as Jimmy Baca, had a large open wound from his arm. Burch applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

After emergency medical personnel arrived to tend to the injured man, Burch helped search for Larry Baca.

“I proceed to the location I had seen him at previously and found him on the east side of Highway 209, standing at the east end of a drain tunnel against a wall, hiding,” Burch wrote.

Sheriff Russell Shafer and Lt. Larry Cooksey helped detain him.

“While searching Larry for weapons I found a shot bottle of Fireball cinnamon whiskey,” Burch wrote. “The bottle of whiskey was unopened. While standing next to Larry, I could smell a strong odor of alcoholic beverage. … When asked what happened, Larry stated he was driving and Jimmy Baca had pulled the wheel, causing an accident. I asked Larry Baca if (he) had been drinking, and he said he had two beers. I asked Larry why he left the scene, and he said Jimmy told him to leave.”

After being evaluated at Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, Larry Baca was cleared for incarceration.

The accident prompted the closing of Highway 209 for about an hour.