LAS CRUCES — A Las Cruces man has died from a possible overdose and the man who discovered his body may be facing charges — though not for foul play.

Johnny Huerta, 38, a Las Cruces man who was about to face prison time, reached out Friday night to a couple he was friends with, according to a Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department report.

Huerta and the man, who brought along his Bible, went for a drive to talk and decided to go to a party with the man's wife. They returned to the couple's house in the 3600 block of Picacho Avenue, and Huerta, who investigators said had been drinking, was to sleep on the couch.

Around 3 a.m., the wife checked on Huerta and found him unresponsive. She and her husband attempted CPR to no avail.

The wife called 911 and her husband decided to leave the scene — as he was on probation, he was not supposed to have been drinking, nor was he supposed to have had any contact with his wife, with whom he had had a domestic dispute the week prior.

When law enforcement arrived, however, they found the man's Bible in Huerta's car and the man could not explain how it had gotten there without him also being on the scene.

"His wife was trying to protect him," sheriff's investigator Bo Nevarez said.

The couple may face charges of providing false information to law enforcement, but nothing about Huerta's death indicated foul play, Nevarez said.

Nevarez said Huerta of the 1000 block of Devendale may have had a history

of drinking and taking prescription pills, and overcome by the possibility of going to prison, could have accidentally overdosed.

Huerta's body has been sent to Albuquerque for an autopsy and a toxicology report is pending.