A Santa Fe jury on Friday awarded more than $14.5 million in damages to the family of an Albuquerque man killed by a drunken driver in 2003. The verdict assessed $10 million in punitive damages against the operators of a convenience store whose employees sold alcohol to the driver.

Daniel Durand was sentenced Sept. 11, 2003, to serve 10 years in prison, and five years probation for a list of driving offenses he committed after he left work at Albuquerque convenience store drunk and collided with five other vehicles on Aug. 31, 2003. Among the vehicles he hit was a motorcycle driven by Daniel Gutierrez.

Gutierrez remained in a coma after the accident until he died about five weeks later, leaving behind three young sons. His mother, Janet Jaramillo, sued Durand and the company he had worked for prior to the accident.

Jaramillo alleged that Alameda Meteor, a northwest Albuquerque business that owned the convenience store where Durand worked, and its parent companies were negligent when store employees sold alcohol to Durand, who was obviously intoxicated at the time.

Jacob Vigil, the attorney who represented Jaramillo, said store employees sold Durand beer throughout the day knowing he was a chronic alcoholic.

"They permitted him to drive, recognizing him driving on and off the property, and continued to sell him alcohol until he eventually killed someone," Vigil said.

Vigil said store employees even let Durand exchange warm beers for cold ones during the day of the accident.

The lawsuit named El Baracho Inc. — the company that leased the liquor license to the store operators — along with Meteor Monument, Alameda Meteor and Meteor Stores Inc., which held the franchise for the Conoco convenience store.

The case was tried in Santa Fe because the companies are registered as corporations here, Vigil said.

Blood-alcohol tests performed on Durand three hours after he struck the five vehicles revealed a blood-alcohol content then of .09, which is in excess of the legal limit for drivers in New Mexico. Police arrested Durand after he crashed into an irrigation ditch and an off-duty volunteer firefighter climbed in to seize the keys for the Ford Bronco that Durand drove.

The jury awarded Gutierrez's estate $3.25 million, and another $1 million to his mother. The jury also awarded each of his three sons $100,000 in actual damages for negligence in the death of their father. The jury attributed Durand's actions as responsible for 40 percent of the damage and found Alameda Meteor and its parent companies responsible for the remainder.

The jury found the companies liable for $10 million in punitive damages and found Durand liable for $10,000 in punitive damages. As part of the lawsuit, Durand admitted his negligence led to Gutierrez's death.

Vigil said he was unaware of any similar cases in New Mexico where a liquor license holder was assessed a large amount for the actions of a driver to whom they sold liquor. The Conoco convenience store where Durand bought the beer, located a block from the site of Albuquerque's annual balloon festival, sells $50,000 worth of beer during a typical slow week and far more than that during the festival, Vigil said.

"When stores are selling alcohol at that level at that degree without appropriate accountability, members of the public are just going to get killed. And so a lot of the responsibility lies with these convenience stores," Vigil said.

The jury returned the verdict after a three-day trial and a day of deliberations.

Contact David Collins at 986-3064 or dcollins@sfnewmexican.com.