A La Plata County Sheriff’s Office deputy who shot and killed a suspect in November on U.S. Highway 550 north of Durango will not face criminal charges, according to a decision letter released Wednesday by District Attorney Sean Murray.
After reviewing the evidence – including body camera footage, witness statements and law enforcement reports – the District Attorney’s Office found the deputy’s use of deadly force “does not present a reasonable likelihood of conviction.”
The deputy shot the suspect five times, and a Durango Police Department officer tased him three times, according to the letter.
In cases of officer-involved violence or deadly force, it is the role of the district attorney to determine whether a criminal offense was committed.
Ernest Marlin Pino III, 31, of New Mexico, was shot five times in the chest by Deputy Dillon Irwin at 2:52 p.m. Nov. 4 in the 28600 block of Highway 550, according to reports by law enforcement and the decision letter.
According to an autopsy report from the La Plata County Coroner’s Office, Pino suffered injuries to his heart, left lung, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, right iliopsoas, ribs and vertebrae. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
At the time of his death, Pino had a blood-alcohol level of 0.229 – nearly three times the legal driving limit – and tested “presumptively positive” on blood and urine cannabis tests, according to the report.
He was reportedly on probation for an assault case in New Mexico at the time of the shooting, and had previously been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and manic depression, according to his fiancee of six years. He did not take medication for his conditions, she said, and instead “self-medicated” with alcohol.
Irwin, along with Durango Police Department officer Kaden Taulli, were responding to a domestic violence report involving Pino and his fiancee when Pino was shot.
According to the decision letter, central dispatch broadcast a call to officers with reports that Pino was possibly hitting his fiancee while driving, and that she was calling for help.
Pino’s car was stopped on the side of the highway about 2 miles north of city limits. When officers arrived, they found both the passenger- and driver-side doors open, as was the trunk. Pino and his fiancee were standing outside the car when the deputy and the DPD officer arrived, the letter said.
Body camera footage showed Pino lifting his arms in the air while holding a baseball bat and an ax handle as the deputy and the officer arrived, the letter said.
Irwin, while drawing his pistol, told Pino’s fiancee to come to his side, and ordered Pino to drop the weapons, according to the letter. His fiancee ran to the deputy as Pino reportedly shook the bat and ax handle and yelled repeatedly, “I ain’t droppin’ (expletive),” and “don’t talk to my wife like that, bro.”
Pino then reportedly yelled, “What’s up, (expletive)?” and ran toward his fiancee and the two law enforcement officers. When Pino came within two to three body lengths’ distance from the two officers, Irwin shot Pino five times with his pistol, and Pino fell to the ground, the letter said.
Taulli simultaneously fired his Taser at Pino three times, the letter said. A Durango Police Department spokesperson told the Herald that Taulli deployed three probes from his taser at Pino, which delivered only one shock. The tasers used by the DPD require two probes to be deployed in order to deliver one shock, the spokesperson said. Irwin told a CBI agent that he recalled Taulli “striking (Pino) in the face with one probe and possibly the chest with another.”
Multiple deputies and officers arrived immediately after the shooting and attempted lifesaving procedures but were unsuccessful, according to the letter.
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Law enforcement agencies have so far declined The Durango Herald’s requests for the bodycam footage.
Pino’s fiancee told officers that she and Pino between them had drank about 3 pints of Admiral Henry’s Rum that day before getting into the car, but that she thought Pino had drank more than she did.
The two had been arguing and yelling while Pino was driving, she told law enforcement, and Pino began “driving erratically, passing vehicles, going through stop lights and speeding,” and then started slapping her as he drove.
She told Pino to stop the vehicle multiple times, which he reportedly refused to do, and attempted to call 911 but was prevented from doing so by Pino, she said in an interview with law enforcement.
Pino, after driving north out of Durango, reportedly pulled the car over, told his fiancee to call police and said, “I’m not going to jail, they’re gonna have to take me out.”
He then retrieved the baseball bat and the ax handle from the back of the car, kissed her and told her to tell his daughter he loved her before officers arrived at the scene and the shooting occurred, she told law enforcement.
Irwin, in an interview with a CBI agent, said he “recognized that it was a very serious situation, based on his training and experience,” and believed that Pino could not be reasoned with and that if he had not shot him, Pino would have assaulted him, Taulli or Pino’s fiancee.
Irwin told the CBI agent that he considered firing his 40 mm launcher – a specialized, often single-shot breach-loaded device that shoots foam projectiles or “sponge rounds” as a less-lethal way to subdue a suspect – but that he “did not have time to act on the thought” before Pino ran at him, Taulli and Pino’s fiancee.
“Having reviewed the facts and evidence in this case, my office concludes that a reasonable person, confronted with the same facts and circumstances, would believe that it was necessary to use deadly physical force to defend himself or the other persons present from Mr. Pino,” Murray wrote in the decision letter.
epond@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story said Durango Police Department Officer Taulli fired his taser three times, per the decision letter written by District Attorney Sean Murray. A Durango Police Department spokesperson clarified that while three probes were deployed, only one shock was delivered to Ernest Marlin Pino III.
