A Los Alamos woman was drunk and driving recklessly before she drove herself and her husband off a 350-foot cliff nearly four years ago, a prosecutor said Monday.

Penny Granich, now 35, survived the plunge into Overlook Canyon on Dec. 4, 2005, because she was wearing a seat belt, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Gutierrez said during opening statements in Granich's trial on charges including vehicular homicide in 1st District Judge Michael Vigil's court in Santa Fe.

Thomas Granich, 32, who was riding in his pickup's passenger seat, died mainly of head and neck injuries after he was ejected from the truck when it struck a canyon wall 150 feet down.

The truck tumbled another 200 feet after the point of initial impact before coming to rest on its wheels in a small stream at the bottom of the canyon, according to court documents.

Gutierrez urged jurors to use their common sense when deciding if Penny Granich — whom he said also was speeding before the crash — is guilty of vehicular homicide, reckless driving and driving while intoxicated.

Mark Donatelli, Penny Granich's attorney, told jurors that almost nothing in the case is known for certain.

That includes who was driving, the speed of the truck and the time of the accident, he said. Add to that a bungled investigation by Los Alamos police and a much-maligned accident reconstructionist, and definitive answers about the crash become even further out of reach, Donatelli said.

"Penny Granich should never have been charged," he said. "She shouldn't be here."

Penny Granich has told police she doesn't remember the events leading up to the crash and doesn't remember who was driving, according to court documents. However, a nurse at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center has said Penny Granich admitted she was driving, and that her injuries looked to be caused by the driver-side seat belt.

Gutierrez told jurors Monday that Penny Granich's blood and DNA were found on the truck's driver-side airbag and the center console. He also said Thomas Granich's blood and DNA were found on the passenger-side airbag. Thomas Granich also suffered injuries consistent with being ejected through the windshield, he said. Finally, Penny Granich's shoe was found on the floor on the driver's side of the truck, Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said Penny Granich was familiar with Overlook Park in White Rock, where the accident occurred, because she and Thomas Granich were married there. Penny Granich drove the truck the length of two football fields — across roads and through brush — before plunging off the cliff, he said.

However, Donatelli said the only things known for sure in the case are that Thomas Granich was driving when the couple left the Canyon Bar and Grill in Los Alamos after midnight, that his blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal driving limit and that the headlights on the truck were not on when it crashed.

He said it's unclear who was driving because "there was blood and DNA all over the inside of that truck ... because of the incredible tumbling." For example, Thomas Granich's DNA was found on Penny Granich's shoe, he said. Also, Penny Granich had to climb out the driver's side of the truck because the passenger side was wedged against rock, Donatelli said.

Donatelli said Thomas Granich may have been ejected from truck's back window, because no blood or clothing fibers were found in the hole in the windshield.

If Penny Granich were driving, she might not have been drunk when the truck went off the cliff, he said. She had three drinks at the bar before they left, he said. If the crash didn't occur until the sun was coming up or already up — which would mean the headlights would have been in the off position they were found after the crash — then she probably wasn't drunk, Donatelli said.

Donatelli also criticized police for not collecting enough forensic evidence from the inside of the car, from the spot where Thomas Granich's body was found or where the truck first hit the cliff wall. He also said Jon Gonzales, who investigated the crash for the Los Alamos Police Department, lost measurements of the scene, used an unreliable Global Positioning System device to make other measurements and came to conclusions that another accident reconstructionist disregarded completely.

Coincidentally, Gonzales is the same accident reconstructionist harshly criticized by lawyers in another vehicular homicide trial last week. Lawyers for Carlos Fierro, convicted Friday in Vigil's court, called Gonzales' report about the Fierro crash "garbage."

That's because Gonzales placed the victim in that crash, William Tenorio, right in the middle of a crosswalk at the time he was hit. However, only one of 10 witnesses at that trial testified that Tenorio was in the crosswalk. The rest said he was south of the crosswalk. Gonzales never testified at the Fierro trial, and his report was not introduced into evidence.

The Granich trial is expected to last until Thursday.

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