No details on how Rio Arriba sheriff ingested fentanyl in New Mexico State Police reports

Yahoo

07-06-2025

A month and a half after Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield died from a fatal combination of alcohol and fentanyl, those investigating his death still don't know how he consumed the drug.
An initial batch of reports released by New Mexico State Police this week indicate the agency's investigators have not yet determined how Merrifield ingested the fatal dose of fentanyl that caused his death, along with alcohol, according to toxicology reports.
Following the sheriff's death, investigators collected evidence from the scene, including several cellphones, and interviewed the last people who had seen him alive and some of his close friends, the reports show.
But the reports indicate investigators did not recover any drugs or drug paraphernalia from the scene of the sheriff's death.
Although witnesses noted Merrifield was drinking alcohol the night before he died, several who were close to the sheriff have noted — to the police and to The New Mexican — they had never known him to use drugs.
Merrifield was found dead in his sheriff's office vehicle on Easter Sunday, April 20, after being involved in what police described as a "minor crash" early that morning down the street from his home near Abiquiú Lake. A close friend told officers and dispatchers he had come to Merrifield's aid sometime before 4 a.m., just after the crash, in which Merrifield, apparently driving his sheriff's office vehicle while intoxicated, had run over a street sign.
The sheriff had been with a woman he had met a week before, his friend told police. The two had been drinking together at Merrifield's home, and Merrifield crashed into the sign just after leaving his home to take the woman back to a house she where was living in Española.
The woman — who told police she was from Chihuahua, Mexico, and had been staying in Española for about eight months with family friends while acting as a caregiver for an older relative — had met Merrifield at the bar at the Ohkay Hotel Casino the previous Saturday night, April 12. Merrifield was there with friends, including the man who came to the couple's aid the morning Merrifield died, she said.
The woman and Merrifield remained in contact throughout that week, developing a romantic relationship, according to the report.
She told police Merrifield had been drinking liquor mixed into a Sprite bottle through the night of April 19 and into the following morning, but he was not "displaying obvious signs of impairment," such as stumbling, and he told her he was "good" to drive her home.
After he swerved off the road and struck a road sign on N.M. 96, about 50 yards from the entrance of his driveway, the woman became "scared," she said, and she took the wheel and steered the vehicle back onto the road, according to the report. She looked over and saw that Merrifield was "snoring," she said.
Police asked the woman if she or Merrifield had used any drugs, and she said "she didn't, but she didn't know if Billy used," police wrote in a report.
Investigators interviewed the woman twice, once just hours after Merrifield was found dead and again May 2. Officers indicated the woman asked if she could return home to Mexico sometime after the second interview.
After Merrifield's friend arrived at the scene of the crash early the morning of April 20, he drove back to Merrifield's home and the woman followed him, driving Merrifield's vehicle, sitting on the sheriff's lap because he was in and out of consciousness and could not be moved from the seat, she told police.
The friend then took the woman back to Española, leaving Merrifield sitting in the driver's seat of his vehicle, parked in his driveway.
Merrifield's friend told police he was going to help Merrifield into his home, but he feared the sheriff's dogs — which were inside the home — might bite him if he did so, investigators wrote. He said Merrifield told him he was "okay," and the friend believed Merrifield was going to get out of the car and walk into his house shortly.
The woman told officers Merrifield was asleep and snoring in his vehicle when she left with his friend.
After trying to call Merrifield 26 times later that day, his friend returned to his home to find him sitting in the vehicle where he had left him that morning, and he was dead, police wrote.
Investigators downloaded the contents of the two witnesses' phones and found texts and phone calls that appeared to corroborate the timeline of their testimony about Merrifield's final hours. Reports indicate investigators had not gained access to two phones that apparently belong to the sheriff.
As of Friday, state police had not determined whether Merrifield ingested fentanyl knowingly or where he might have obtained it, the agency's spokesperson, Lt. Ricardo Breceda, confirmed in an email, writing, "investigators are hopeful this information will be learned as the investigation continues."
There was no evidence to suggest any other staff of the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office were implicated, or that the sheriff obtained any drugs in his official capacity, Breceda wrote.
No criminal charges have been filed in connection with Merrifield's death, but investigators are "working to determine if any charges need to be filed," he added.