More than 24 hours after a pedestrian was struck and killed on U.S. 84/285, Pojoaque Pueblo's lieutenant governor contacted tribal police and told them she had "done something very bad," according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department.

Pojoaque tribal police then went to Linda Diaz's home and found that her car — a silver 2000 Mercury sedan — had sustained damage consistent with striking Phillip Espinoza, 31, says the sheriff's report, released Thursday. A black and silver mirror found near the man's body also matched Diaz's car.

A man walking his dog found Espinoza's body at 11:51 a.m. on April 4, in or near bushes along the side of the highway, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said.

An autopsy determined that the Chimayó man had been laying there for five to six hours, Solano has said, which would pinpoint the likely time of death at between about 5 and 6 a.m. April 4.

Diaz, 52, called Pojoaque tribal police Sunday, April 5, in the late morning, Solano said Thursday.

The case has since been turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is still investigating and has declined to release any information about the case. Norm Cairns, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said Thursday that no charges have yet been filed in connection with the case.

Diaz was not in her office Thursday morning, and a woman who answered the phone refused to take a message for her, saying it would be "awhile" before Diaz would be in the office. The woman offered to transfer a reporter to another person, then hung up the phone.

Pojoaque Gov. George Rivera did not immediately return a phone message Thursday morning. Sam Winder, Diaz's Albuquerque attorney, declined Thursday to comment on the Sheriff's Department report.

Evidence at the accident scene — about 150 yards from Al's Liquor on pueblo land — indicated that Espinoza was walking northbound on the paved shoulder next to the road's northbound lanes at the time he was struck, the report says. The car hit him from behind, striking his left calf area with the right front bumper and right front fender, according to the report and Santa Fe County Sgt. Joe McLaughlin.

Espinoza was next hit in the waist area by the car's right-side mirror. The back of his head struck the windshield pillar.

"The cause of death was determined to be a massive skull fracture and brain injury to the left rear side of the head," according to the report, although it wasn't clear whether he died immediately.

McLaughlin, who responded to the scene, said investigators found no evidence suggesting the exact spot Espinoza was first hit. However, at least part of Diaz's car had to have been off the roadway when it struck Espinoza, he said.

Investigators found a casino player's club card belonging to Espinoza on the right side of a bicycle lane, according to a diagram in the report. "Slide evidence" — a scuff mark left by a shoe or clothing — was found about 10 feet off the roadway on the outside edge of the road's paved shoulder, according to the diagram.

A pair of eyeglasses was about five feet away from that first indication of where the body was struck, on an unpaved section of the shoulder, according to the diagram. Espinoza's body was discovered in or near bushes on the unpaved part of the shoulder, about five feet north of the eyeglasses. His right shoe was found a few feet northeast of his body, while the left shoe and the car's mirror were discovered northwest of that, according to the diagram. Other debris left by the collision was found north of the shoes and mirror.

Espinoza had last been seen at Big Rock Casino, where he worked as a valet supervisor, about 10 p.m. Friday, April 3.

He was seen at the casino's bar after he finished work, though Solano said toxicology results from his body probably won't be available for three to four weeks.

Investigators have no way to determine what, if any, blood-alcohol level Diaz had at the time of the accident, Solano said, because she turned herself in more than 24 hours after the accident.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.

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Santa Fe County Sheriff's report on April 4, 2009 fatal crash on US 84/285