Pojoaque Pueblo's lieutenant governor was the driver for companions who were drinking the night she allegedly struck and killed a 31-year-old Chimayó man walking alongside U.S. 84/285, according to court documents.

Linda Diaz, 52, nonetheless drank at least one beer — and possibly as many as three — and "partied" with a group of people until the early hours of the morning April 4, one of those people later told a Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator.

The man told the investigator that Diaz didn't appear intoxicated that night, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in federal District Court last week in Albuquerque.

Diaz last month pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and failing to render aid in connection with the death of Phillip Espinoza.

Espinoza's body was found in a clump of bushes alongside U.S. 84/285 on Pojoaque Pueblo several hours after he was hit. Diaz called Pojoaque police nearly 30 hours after the collision, crying, and reported that she'd "done something very wrong."

Documents say Diaz called Pojoaque Tribal Police Lt. Frank Rael on his cell phone and asked him to come to her home because she didn't want to talk on the cell phone. When the officer arrived at her house, he found tribal attorney Frank Demolli, who told Rael he was acting as attorney for Diaz.

"Demolli told Lt. Rael that the situation was related to a homicide involving a body found on the side of the road," an investigator's affidavit states. "Diaz made no further statements."

The man who socialized with Diaz the night Espinoza was struck told the BIA investigator that he and his girlfriend and three other women met up with Diaz about 10:15 p.m. April 4 at the Buffalo Thunder Casino. The man said he drank two beers, while Diaz and the other women each had one beer, according to the search warrant affidavit.

The group left the casino about 11 p.m., when the man drove Diaz's 2000 Mercury Marquis to Club Tropicana in Española, the warrant says. There the group played pool and drank alcohol. The man estimated he drank three beers and two shots at the club, and estimated that the women each drank two beers, the warrant states.

The man told the investigator that "the whole reason I was drinking a lot is because Linda (Diaz) was to be the driver from the 'Trops,' " the warrant says. The man said Diaz was "OK and did not seem intoxicated," the document says.

The group stayed at Club Tropicana until it closed, then left in Diaz's car, with Diaz driving, about 2:30 a.m. One of the women in the group retrieved six beers from her home in the Pojoaque area, and the group went to the man's house in the area and "partied" for another 30 to 45 minutes, the warrant says.

Diaz and another woman then left. The man didn't know who was driving at that point, the warrant states.

The warrant was filed in order to retrieve phone and text-message records from Diaz's cell phone. Verizon Wireless provided 55 pages of records July 24, the warrant says.

Another warrant filed in federal District Court asked for permission to search Diaz's car. Investigators found what looked to be fibers from Espinoza's clothing in the windshield of Diaz's car, and also noticed a paint transfer on his clothing during an autopsy, the warrant says. A rearview mirror found near Espinoza's body may have come from Diaz's car, the warrant states.

The investigator seized paint chips from the car and attempted to download information from the car's computer, according to the warrant.

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