Parolee dies after crash in stolen pickup

Karen Zekan

Thursday, June 26, 1997 | 11:48 a.m.

A man killed when the stolen pickup he was driving rolled over has been identified as a 34-year-old parolee from Fontana, Calif.

Inside the pickup were at least a dozen different identification cards and three women's purses, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Steve Harney said.

Frank Rubio, whose body was covered in tattoos, was on parole out of San Bernardino, Calif., Harney said. He died about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday when the pickup rolled over on the northbound Las Vegas Raceway on-ramp to Interstate 15.

A preliminary investigation was focusing on statements made by a woman identifying herself as the victim's wife who witnessed the rollover.

"She apparently had been in the pickup with the man when they got into a domestic dispute," Harney said. "He stopped the pickup, threw her out, and punched it to go down the ramp."

Investigators have determined Rubio lost control of the speeding pickup and it went into a broadside skid toward the dirt, flipped and landed on its top. Harney said Rubio most likely died on impact after being ejected and thrown about 40 feet.

"The woman was distraught and told us that they were en route to Utah where her husband was going to look for work," Harney said. "We're still looking at her involvement, though. She has been very cooperative, but we can't piece the whole story together."

The woman claimed the pickup, stolen earlier Wednesday from Laguna Niguel, Calif., was the basis for the couple's argument. The wife was taken to Shade Tree Women's Shelter in Las Vegas, where she spent the night. Because she was outside the car when troopers arrived, they couldn't charge her with possession of stolen property, Harney said today.

"She said they had been riding in her car before the accident, and that she got out at the store to get a soda," Harney said. "When her husband came back to get her, he was in the stolen pickup."

Authorities withheld the woman's name pending further investigation, although they said it did not match the name they believe belongs to the victim or any of the 12 men's and women's identification cards found in the Chevy.

Harney said the purses appeared to belong to different people, but investigators had not determined if they were stolen.