Crash that killed a Albuquerque priest ends in misdemeanor convictions

Olivier Uyttebrouck , Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read
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Aug. 11—A pair of criminal cases stemming from a 2021 crash that killed an Albuquerque priest and injured a second member of the Norbertine Community were resolved this week when the drivers of two vehicles each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of racing on highways.

The May 21, 2021, collision killed the Rev. Graham Golden, 35, and severely injured his passenger, 24-year-old Brother Lorenzo Edgar Romero, as they were turning north onto Coors from the driveway of the Norbertine Community of Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey.

Sheriff's deputies initially charged two people each with vehicular homicide and great bodily injury by vehicle, alleging they were racing on Coors when a southbound Ford F150 driven by Manuel Soria, 24, T-boned a Hyundai Ioniq driven by Golden, who died at the scene. Romero was severely injured.

The fatal crash led to an outpouring of grief for Golden and Romero, who were both well known in the community.

At plea hearings this week, Soria pleaded no contest and a co-defendant, Angelica Boyd, 34, pleaded no contest to one count each of racing on highways. Each was sentenced to 90 days of probation.

Nancy Laflin, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office, said members of Golden's family approved of the plea and sentencing agreements for Soria and Boyd.

"Father Golden's family asked to be merciful to both defendants," Laflin said in a written statement. "They didn't want them to go to jail and were in agreement with probation."

Soria's attorney, Robert Aragon, said information emerged in the months after the fatal crash that led to the dismissal of felony charges against Soria and Boyd.

Golden's passenger, Romero, filed a lawsuit in August 2022 against the Norbertine Community and Golden's estate alleging that Golden had been texting on his cellphone and failed to keep a proper lookout as he pulled onto Coors. The parties in that lawsuit reached an undisclosed settlement and the suit was dismissed by a judge in November 2022.

Golden also failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign before he pulled onto Coors as the law requires, Aragon said in a phone interview Friday. "Had that occurred, this horrible tragedy would not have occurred," he said.

Further investigation also found that Soria and Boyd had stopped racing some distance before they reached the entrance to the abbey and that Soria's vehicle was traveling 61-67 mph at the time of the collision, Aragon said. The speed limit was 55 mph at that location.

An Albuquerque native and a graduate of the University of New Mexico, Golden was director of formations at the abbey and had previously served as pastor at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Albuquerque. He had joined the Norbertine community 12 years before his death and had been an ordained priest for five years.