Third-offense DWI arrest near Mesa View Plaza tops Gallup report

A gray Kia stopped near Mesa View Plaza put a third-offense DWI arrest at the center of another busy enforcement week along U.S. Highway 491, where Gallup-area patrols continue to catch repeat drunken-driving cases and seatbelt violations in the same corridor. The arrest of Robert Emerson, 43, of Yatahey, came during a roundup that also listed four other local DWI cases, underscoring how often the highway between Gallup and surrounding communities remains under watch.

New Mexico State Police Officer Merlin Benally said he was patrolling U.S. Highway 491 on June 14 when he saw Emerson’s gray Kia Sportage and noticed the driver was not wearing a seatbelt. The vehicle then made an abrupt turn that appeared to be an attempt to shake the officer, and Benally stopped it near Mesa View Plaza. Emerson told the officer he did not have his documents with him and asked Benally to check his Social Security number.

During the encounter, Benally observed bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol. Emerson agreed to field sobriety tests but performed poorly, and Benally determined he was too impaired to drive. The report says Emerson became resistive during the arrest, tried to pull his limbs away and later told officers his life was over and asked them to shoot him. At the state police office, he posted breath samples of .06 before being booked into the McKinley County Adult Detention Center on charges of DWI third, no license, no seat belts and three counts of resisting arrest. His pretrial hearing was set for July 9.

The same Gallup Sun roundup listed other arrests that keep the pressure on the corridor. Melanie Qualo, 52, was charged with aggravated DWI on June 14 and had a June 30 pretrial hearing. Catalina Clark, 49, faced an aggravated DWI charge from the same day and was set for a July 14 pretrial. Mathus Burt, 22, was charged with DWI second on June 13 and had a July 14 pretrial, while Derrick Yazzie, 36, was charged with DWI second on June 9 and had a June 25 pretrial.

The broader traffic picture in McKinley County gives those arrests added weight. The University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies’ 2024 New Mexico DWI report found McKinley County had the highest alcohol-involved fatal crash rate per 10,000 residents among the state’s 10 counties with the most alcohol-involved fatal crashes, at 2.2. The same UNM-GPS traffic-crash reporting says law-enforcement crash data collected on the state Uniform Crash Report feed federal reporting and highway-safety funding, which is why each stop on Highway 491 lands inside a larger safety system.

The McKinley County Adult Detention Center in Gallup holds defendants for courts and law enforcement across the county and nearby tribal, state and federal partners. Gallup Sun’s June 26 public-safety roundup also pointed to McKinley County Sheriff’s Office ENDWI checkpoints and saturation patrols, showing that the enforcement presence around Gallup remained heavy as officers kept working the same roads.