Jury returns mixed verdict in 2022 road rage case

Sept. 19 — A Santa Fe man was found guilty of several other minor charges after a three-day trial in a 2022 road rage incident, but was acquitted of other more serious charges.

A Santa Fe jury convicted Joseph Anaya, 44, on Wednesday of driving with a revoked license, leaving the scene of an accident and driving with an unrestrained child. He was acquitted of charges of aggravated DUI, aggravated battery and driving while intoxicated with a minor in the vehicle.

The case stems from a 2022 incident in which Anaya was accused of driving drunk with an unrestrained child in his lap, intentionally rear-ending a pickup truck and dragging its driver out of the truck on Interstate 25 near La Bajada.

According to a complaint filed at the time, occupants of the truck said Anaya attacked the driver on the side of the road and only stopped when he saw Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies approaching. Anaya tried to flee in his pickup truck, witnesses told police, but was unable to do so because of extensive damage to his vehicle. So he grabbed his son and left the scene on foot.

Anaya told state police the incident began when he was filling up his car with gas at a Speedway gas station in Sandoval County. The driver of the pickup, he said, began following him closely, tried to push him off the road and signaled Anaya to pull over. Anaya told police he hit the truck while stopping because the truck “slammed on its brakes” while he was looking at his son. He admitted to fighting with the truck driver at the time.

Anaya, who has a lengthy criminal history, including a no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2007 stabbing, has been in jail since November 2023. He remains in custody without bail in a separate case in which he is accused of threatening a state employee involved in a matter involving Anaya’s children.

“He wants to thank the jury for giving him a fair trial,” Anaya’s attorney, Ben Ortega, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Ortega praised the jury for deciding the facts in the case despite an apparent dislike for Anaya.

“One of the jurors told me they didn’t like him and they wished they could find him guilty (of the other charges) but they couldn’t because there wasn’t enough evidence,” Ortega said.