Suit names alleged drunk driver, cafe

SANTA FE (KRQE) - The parents of two teenagers who died in a deadly drunk driving crash earlier this year want the man accused of killing them and the restaurant who served him alcohol to pay.

David Peshlakai, Darlene Thomas and a representative of the estate of victims, Del Lynn and Deshauna Peshlakai, filed a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this week.

The suit comes five months after Peshlakai and Thomas lost their daughters.

Last month, the mother of the Naschitti sisters, sat down with News 13 to speak about her two youngest children.

"Please don't drink and drive," Thomas said. "I was always proud of my girls."

Her daughters were killed after repeat DWI offender, James Ruiz, slammed a truck he was driving into the girls' car.

They were stopped at a red light. The teens' father and mother were also in the car, and survived.

The wrongful death lawsuit they filed named Ruiz, the man he allegedly drank with that day, another friend and the restaurant that served them alcohol as defendants.

The suit claims employees at Blue Corn in Santa Fe served booze to an "obviously intoxicated" Ruiz and his friends, and that servers continued to give them alcohol as "they became increasingly more intoxicated."

Investigators said after the crash Ruiz's blood alcohol level was .22, which is nearly three times over the legal limit.

The owner of Blue Corn did not return calls from News 13.

Ruiz remains in the Santa Fe county jail and faces two counts of vehicular homicide. He's expected to go on trial next month on a previous DWI case. Ruiz' criminal attorney said that he did not know about the lawsuit, and that he would likely not represent him in the case because it is a civil matter.

Thomas or her attorney didn't want to speak on-camera pending the lawsuit, but last month Thomas repeated the message to stop drunk driving so that no one would ever feel the pain she'll always feel.

Del was 19-years-old. Deshauna was 17.

"We want it to be seen," said Thomas. "We want it to be heard, to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else."