Woman on probation shows up intoxicated in court

Court incident occurs after three bail violation arrests
Yanito

A Montezuma County woman who has been arrested three times in six weeks for violating bail conditions was arrested Wednesday in court after showing up drunk.

Samantha Yanito, 26, was sentenced to 12 months probation on Dec. 5, 2018, after she plead guilty to third-degree assault for recklessly causing bodily injury during an incident in September. The conditions of Yanito’s probation stipulate that she cannot consume alcohol, recreational marijuana or illegal substances.

The day after she was sentenced to probation, on Dec. 6, a Cortez Police Department incident report states an officer saw a woman with a bottle of alcohol near the intersection of North Park Street and East Montezuma Avenue about 1:45 p.m. He contacted the woman, identified as Yanito. She said she put Skittles in a 375 milliliter bottle of Taaka vodka to make it taste better.

She was arrested for violating her protection order and taken to Montezuma County Detention Center.

About a month later, on Jan. 5, police officers arrested Yanito in the City Market parking lot about 8 p.m. The incident report states Yanito told the officer she was cold. She pulled up her pant leg and showed the officer her ankle monitor and told him that she was going to jail because she wasn’t supposed to be drinking. She was slurring her words and smelled of alcohol, the report states.

She was arrested for violating her protection order and taken to Montezuma County Detention Center.

Four days later, on Jan. 9, officers arrested Yanito as she sat near the 200 block of North Ash Street with a bottle of Taaka vodka. The incident report states the officer smelled a strong odor of alcohol and had trouble understanding Yanito because she was slurring her words.

Because of her high level of intoxication, she was medically cleared at Southwest Memorial Hospital and then arrested for violating her protection order and taken to Montezuma County Detention Center.

On the most recent charge of protection order violation, Yanito was scheduled to appear in Montezuma County Court at 11 a.m. Wednesday. She appeared in court but was remanded into custody for being drunk. According to court documents, she blew a preliminary breath test of 0.271 blood alcohol content. She is 5 feet tall and weighs 98 pounds.

She is scheduled for a probation revocation hearing on Jan. 22.

sdolan@the-journal.com