Cellphone evidence and witness video contradicted Alissa Huerta’s initial account of the fatal Nampa parking lot confrontation, say police.

NAMPA, Idaho — Deleted Snapchat recordings recovered from an 18-year-old woman’s cellphone have become part of the evidence in a first-degree murder case accusing her of intentionally driving over 19-year-old Jade Aliyah Ramirez after a confrontation in a Nampa parking lot, according to police and court records.

Alissa Mae Huerta, of Caldwell, is charged in Ramirez’s July 26 death after investigators concluded the collision was intentional rather than an accident. Police say the fatal encounter followed months of hostile communications tied to a dispute involving the father of Ramirez’s child. Huerta has not been convicted, and the allegations remain pending in court. Her preliminary hearing, where a judge will decide whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence for the felony case to proceed, is now scheduled for Sept. 23.

Investigators did not begin the morning with a murder arrest. Nampa officers were called at about 4:20 a.m. to a parking lot in the 1500 block of Caldwell Boulevard after receiving a report that a pedestrian had been struck by a vehicle. Ramirez was found with life-threatening injuries and taken to a hospital, where she died. The vehicle involved had left before officers arrived. Police initially said they lacked enough evidence to charge anyone, but detectives continued interviewing people and reviewing material connected to the encounter.

The investigation increasingly centered on what happened immediately before Huerta’s Honda struck Ramirez. According to allegations summarized from a probable cause affidavit, Ramirez and Huerta had been in conflict for months. Investigators wrote that the dispute began in February after Ramirez confronted Huerta about an intimate relationship with the father of Ramirez’s child. The women exchanged numerous threatening text and voice messages, authorities allege. By the morning of July 26, Huerta, her sister and Ramirez had agreed to meet in a parking lot where a fight involving Huerta’s sister and Ramirez was expected to take place.

Huerta gave detectives an account that portrayed the collision as part of an attempt to get away. She said Ramirez came to the meeting carrying a baseball bat and struck the Honda several times, according to the affidavit as reported by local news organizations. Investigators said the driver’s-side window was shattered and the windshield was damaged. Huerta told police that she tried to leave the parking lot and did not intentionally steer the vehicle toward Ramirez. That statement became important because detectives later said video evidence showed a sequence they believed was inconsistent with an accidental strike.

The affidavit describes video that investigators say captured the Honda making contact with Ramirez and continuing through the parking lot. Police said the vehicle’s front bumper struck Ramirez’s legs and that she was thrown onto the hood. Investigators further alleged the Honda accelerated as it turned around a nearby light pole before Ramirez was pulled beneath the vehicle. The description is contained in an accusation supporting the criminal charge and has not yet been tested at trial. Authorities have not publicly established every circumstance surrounding the confrontation, including the complete actions of each person present before the collision.

Detectives also examined Huerta’s cellphone. That examination produced deleted material that prosecutors may use to argue Huerta knew she had run Ramirez over. In one recovered Snapchat audio recording described in the affidavit, Huerta allegedly said, “I ran her over, though. I’m not going to lie.” Investigators reported finding another recording in which she referred to her sister saying that she had run Ramirez over. The recordings are significant because police allege they were made after the collision and because Huerta had initially denied deliberately aiming the vehicle at Ramirez.

The existence of those statements does not by itself resolve the central legal question of intent. First-degree murder is the charge authorities chose after reviewing the evidence, but prosecutors will still have to establish the elements required under Idaho law as the case advances. Huerta’s account included an allegation that Ramirez was attacking her vehicle with a bat, while investigators have said other evidence led them to conclude that the act of striking Ramirez was intentional. How the defense challenges the recordings, the video and the state’s interpretation of the confrontation will be determined through court proceedings.

The transition from a reported pedestrian collision to a murder investigation occurred over roughly two days. After detectives gathered additional evidence and determined that an altercation had preceded the collision, police publicly described the case as an isolated incident and said there was no continuing threat to the public. Huerta was arrested Tuesday, July 28, and booked on one count of first-degree murder. The charge represented a major change from the uncertainty officers described when they first responded to the parking lot before dawn that Sunday.

More than a month later, the criminal case is still in its early stages. At an Aug. 26 court proceeding, attorneys discussed a substantial amount of discovery that had recently been provided to Huerta’s defense. Her preliminary hearing was postponed to give the defense additional time to review the material. The court also ruled that recording will not be allowed at the next hearing and that the proceeding will not be available through Zoom, according to local reporting. Huerta remains in custody without bond.

The Sept. 23 preliminary hearing will focus on whether prosecutors have enough evidence to keep the first-degree murder charge moving through the court system, not on determining Huerta’s ultimate guilt or innocence. The recovered cellphone material, video evidence and competing accounts of the parking lot encounter are expected to remain central to the case. Ramirez’s death is undisputed; whether prosecutors can prove Huerta intentionally caused it under circumstances supporting first-degree murder remains an allegation for the courts to decide.

Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.