Family Mourns Sisters; 'Basketball Was Their Life' (Another NM DWI tragedy)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | March 7, 2010 | Jessica Dyer And Karen Peterson

[CedarDave]

SANTA FE — Ask about teenage sisters Deshauna and Del Lynn Peshlakai, and the conversation repeatedly shifts to basketball.

"They were athletes — the whole family," said the girls' aunt, Virginia Garcia. "They'd played basketball since they were little girls. Their father played; the whole family played. Basketball was their life."

It was basketball that brought Deshauna and Del to Santa Fe on Friday night, where they were killed by a suspected drunken driver in a five-car pileup on Cerrillos Road.

The Peshlakais, who are from the Navajo community of Naschitti, south of Shiprock, were headed home after Newcomb High School's first-round state playoff game at Santa Fe Indian School when police say their Chevrolet sedan was rear-ended by a pickup driven by James Ruiz.

Ruiz, 36, of Albuquerque has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and is being held in the Santa Fe County Jail. Police suspect alcohol was involved.

He has a previous conviction for DWI, according to online court records, and was scheduled to go on trial on the same charge, stemming from a 2008 offense, in Santa Fe Magistrate Court this week.

The girls were riding in the back seat, while their father, David Peshlakai, was driving. David remained in the Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center ICU on Saturday night, where he was being treated for a collapsed lung and broken ribs. The girls' mother, Darlene Thomas, was in the passenger seat of the car and was also treated at St. Vincent, Garcia said. ...

One of the girls died at the scene; the other died in the early hours Saturday morning, Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said.

Deshauna, 17, was a member of the Newcomb team, the youngest in a line of five sisters who had represented the Skyhawks.

[CedarDave]

I don’t excuse this, have no use for anyone who drinks and drives much less over and over again, but I am intrigued about whether there is a gene that makes Indian’s predisposed to alcohol abuse.

I'm sure there is something in their genes. Gallup and Farmington NM are two locations where alcoholism among native-Americans is rampant. Gallup has taken steps to close liquor stores and stop cheap wine from being sold to the Navajo's. There are several RR related deaths each year there where they are either struck while crossing or pass out on the mainline BNSF tracks.

[driftless2]

If they’re looking for some way to use the stimulus money to employ people, they could use it to hire the unemployed residents of Farminton and a few other cities my wife and I drove through last October to pick up all the damn litter on the streets. We couldn’t believe all the trash lying by the roadside as we passed through Farmington.

[CedarDave]

I’ve always thought of NM as the “land of litter.”

[IYAS9YAS]

I’ve always thought of NM as the “land of litter.”

When my dad came to visit one of the first things he commented on was all the trash (Rio Rancho). I told him we pick up our property, but with the way the wind blows, it's a real pain to keep up with. We don't even bother with the roads or properties (empty) near us. It just isn't worth it.