Tradegy, Meth and New Mexico
Mile marker 126 looking West at the East bound traffic on I-40 New Mexico.
It was a hot late summer day outside Grants, New Mexico a small town roughly 70 miles west of Albuquerque. Two young men had just robbed a Wal-Mart for a key ingredient for meth, escaping store security and getting away with about $600 worth of antihistamine in a stolen pick-up.
Maybe they were feeling good at this moment. They'd taken a big step towards making a temporarily escape from the hot dry desert state. They probably didn't realize how deep inside drug addiction that they were. But this crime wasn't the only one they would commit that day.
The date was August 1st 2001. At the end of the day, a 37-year-old man who had served his small community for seven years would be run down like a wretched dog in the streets by a man who could barely count to ten.
After the Wal-Mart robbery was reported a police officer stopped two young men in a vehicle matching the one used in the robbery. In it were the Craig brothers: Aron and Zacharia, a 21-year-old and a 19-year-old. Both were the gaunt, eerie product of a run-down Albuquerque satellite town called North Valley. The Craig's get-a-way vehicle was a stolen 1995 Toyota pickup truck. It's license plate matched those taken down by Wal-Mart employees. As the officer questioned Aron on the side of the road Zacharia, the younger of the two boys, slid over from the passenger side of the truck, started the engine and sped off down the highway.
More police chased after Zacharia Craig while his eolder brother Aron Craig seized the opportunity to run for it but was quickly apprehended. Police say Zacharia Craig, led them on a 45 mile chase, drove toward Albuquerque on I-40 when he encountered two New Mexico State patrolmen: Officer Billy Cunningham and Officer Lloyd Aragon.
The officers had just laid down stop-sticks on the highway when Zacharia gunned the Toyota's engine and swerved towards the median - directly at Officer Aragon. The truck struck the State patrolman killing him instantly. Officers at the scene later testified that Zacharia Craig had aimed the truck at Aragon who was standing in the median after placing the spiked strip across the road.
Craig's stolen truck continued after the impact only stopping when it struck a guardrail. Zacharia got out of the truck and ran until he was tackled by Officer Cunningham and two other officers. After the arrest police found 40 boxes of the antihistamine Actafed in the truck.
As the hot August day in New Mexico ended, Zacharias Craig was booked into jail and Lloyd Aragon was wheeled into the Grants/Cibola County morgue.
Five years later, in September of 2006, Zacharia Craig, now 24, was presented by his defense counsel as a young man who grew up in abject squalor in shacks and trailers without electricity or running water. His parents never attempted to seek medical attention for his thyroid condition known as Grave's Disease which causes physical and mental deterioration. His parents were depicted as cruel alcoholics that forced their three children to live in trash covered shacks. The meth only made Zacharia's poor judgement worse.
However, the prosecutor's set aside the Death Penalty, which it had previously swore to pursue, for a plea. Zacharia Craig was sentenced to 25 years in prison for 2nd Degree Murder. With a ten year credit, five years for his time served and five more years based on psychiatric evaluations, Craig's actual sentence was 15 years.
In November of the same year a memorial marker was laid at the 126 mile marker of I-40 at the the section of freeway where Officer Aragon was struck and killed. Officer Lloyd Aragon is survived by his widow, Monica Aragon, his son Lloyd Jr. and his daughter Adriana.
References:
A Police Officer Died Today, Lloyd Aragon
Gallup Independent, Trial set for brothers
Gallup Independent, Cop killer gets 15 years
Gallup Independent, Set in Stone: The Lloyd Aragon I-40 memorial
Albuquerque Tribune, Environment of neglect by Joline Gutierrez Krueger
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