After drinking at the Blue Corn Cafe for about two hours Friday evening, James Ruiz and two friends fled the restaurant without paying their $150 bill, a restaurant spokesman said Wednesday.

The trio left about 9 p.m. and minutes later, with Ruiz at the wheel of his friend's Ford F-250 pickup, slammed into the back of a sedan carrying a Navajo family returning home from a high school basketball game. Two sisters — Deshauna Peshlakai, 17, and Del Lynn Peshlakai, 19 — died in the crash. Their parents remained in serious condition Wednesday at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Jeff Jinnett, president of the company that owns the Blue Corn Cafe, said Ruiz and a male friend, identified in court documents as Gilbert Mendoza, both drank three beers and three shots of Crown Royal whiskey at the restaurant. A woman with them, identified as Mendoza's girlfriend in court documents, consumed three vodka drinks, he said.

When the trio ordered another round of drinks, the server became concerned and told a manager about it, Jinnett said. While Ruiz and his friends didn't appear intoxicated, the manager approached the table and said the restaurant wouldn't serve them more alcohol unless they ordered food, he said.

They ordered a few appetizers and another round of drinks, Jinnett said, but before the food and drink arrived, the woman got up and went to the bathroom, he said. The men met her near the front of the restaurant and they left together without paying, he said.

However, the woman left her purse and cell phone at the table, Jinnett said. The restaurant charged the tab on the woman's credit card and later called her home number on the cell phone to let her know her belongings were still at the restaurant, he said. The person who answered said she'd been in an accident and wouldn't be able to pick them up, Jinnett said. The woman's brother retrieved the items Saturday, he said.

"It's awful," Jinnett said. "My heart is just broken for the family."

Ruiz told police he'd been drinking since 1 p.m. the day of the crash. He also said the trio had been at Applebee's, located in the parking lot of Santa Fe Place mall, before the collision, according to court documents. A search warrant filed in state District Court on Tuesday indicates police took credit-card receipts and other documents from the restaurant.

However, a manager at the restaurant declined Tuesday to say whether Ruiz was at the restaurant or what he might have had to drink. She said the restaurant is cooperating with police.

Police also filed search warrants Tuesday detailing what investigators found in the truck Ruiz was driving and in the Peshlakais' 2007 Chevrolet Impala. Officers seized a bottle of unidentified prescription medication with Ruiz's name on it from a suitcase found behind the driver's seat of the truck, as well as a half-full, 750-milliliter bottle of vodka. Swabs of unspecified substances and pieces of the car were taken from the Impala.

A search warrant was not prepared for the Blue Corn Cafe because Jinnett voluntarily gave police all the relevant documents, said Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler.

Ruiz has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and one count of driving with a revoked or suspended license. Police have said that Mendoza and his girlfriend might face charges, though none have yet been filed, Wheeler said.

Mendoza is the manager of a state Department of Health program that conducts criminal background checks on caregivers in long-term care facilities like nursing homes, said Deborah Busemeyer, Department of Health spokeswoman.

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