A Sulphur Springs man wanted in connection with a deadly crash in New Mexico has surrendered to local authorities. On Monday, June 16, 2025, Nicholas Lee Pryor turned himself in to deputies with the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office.
Pryor, a truck driver, is facing three felony charges out of Quay County, New Mexico: Homicide by Reckless Driving and two counts of Causing Great Bodily Harm by Reckless Driving. He is being held without bond and is awaiting extradition to New Mexico.
The charges stem from a crash earlier in June on eastbound Interstate 40 east of Tucumcari, where Pryor’s Volvo big rig collided with multiple vehicles in a construction zone. The crash killed Fauna Gutierrez of Española and injured several others.
According to a criminal complaint filed by New Mexico State Police Patrolman Xavier Garcia, multiple witnesses reported that Pryor’s truck was traveling faster than other vehicles in the construction zone before slamming into slowed or stopped traffic.
Two EMTs told investigators that Pryor admitted to looking down at his cellphone after receiving a text message just before the crash. Pryor later gave a similar account to authorities.
Video evidence retrieved from an interior-facing camera mounted in the truck by Pryor’s employer, Bulkley Trucking, confirmed the account. The footage showed Pryor with his head down and a cellphone in his hand as he approached traffic at 68 miles per hour in a 65 mph construction zone. According to the report, he did not look up until it was too late.
“Mr. Pryor was fixed on a cellular device, without providing full attention to the roadway,” Patrolman Garcia wrote. “The actions of Mr. Pryor … contributed and resulted in the death of the driver of Vehicle #3, Fauna Gutierrez.”
Pryor was hospitalized after the crash with non-life-threatening injuries and released the same day.
