Family in ruin after accident

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 12:02 p.m.

Mary Lynn Sargent was a hard-working, unselfish woman who would do things for others, mainly her family, before she would treat herself, friends say.

The 46-year-old native Las Vegan and single mother of five was on a roller-coaster ride of joys and sorrows in recent days.

She reveled in the birth of a grandchild -- that of her oldest son Alan Schneiderman -- seven days ago. Soon, another grandchild would be born to her 22-year-old daughter Michelle Jamieson. Yet, on the eve of Mother's Day, she was making plans to go to Oregon to visit her dying mother.

Sargent planned to go to work Thursday as a booth cashier at Circus Circus hotel-casino, her place of employment for the last 17 years. But on Wednesday night, all of that changed at the hands of what Metro Police say was a drunken driver.

Sargent, driving a four-door sedan, and her 59-year-old boyfriend, a passenger, died at the scene of a rear-ending accident that occurred as they were stopped for a red light at Main Street and Washington Avenue at 8:40 p.m. The man's name is being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Jamieson, another passenger, lifelong Las Vegan and graduate of Rancho High School, was rushed to the University Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency Caesarian to save her son, Julius Jamieson.

Jamieson was taken off life support and died Thursday. Her kidneys were donated to save others. A decision is expected to be made today on the fate of Julius.

"With all of the recent major accidents involving alcohol and drugs, it seems like it's becoming an epidemic," Schneiderman, a 29-year-old native Las Vegan and food server at the Luxor Hotel, said.

"I felt sad when the six kids were killed working on the highway. But you don't know how sad it is until something like this happens to your family."

Michael Owen Pickett, 24, of Las Vegas, is being held in the Clark County Detention Center on three counts of driving under the influence with death or substantial bodily harm.

Pickett was identified by police as the driver of a 1979 Ford pickup truck that struck Sargent's 1986 Oldsmobile, which was returning home from a family dinner at the Red Lobster on Decatur Boulevard. He is a plumber's assistant with no prior arrests or convictions for drunken driving, police said.

Metro Police Fatal Investigator Detective Steve Winne said police believe Pickett was at a bar that night but have not yet determined which one. Because the baby was born, Pickett faces a fourth count of felony DUI, Winne said.

Schneiderman, a graduate of Basic High, says he will begin making arrangements today to bury his mother and sister.

"I had to beg my mother to buy things for herself because she did everything for her children," he said. "She was so unselfish."

Her other children, Brandy Jamieson, Chas Schneiderman, and Mary's youngest, 19-year-old Michael Jamieson, also were born in Las Vegas.

"She would buy shoes for a stranger on the street before she would buy a pair for herself," said longtime friend Bill Cue. " She was such a giver, never a taker."

Amid great pain, Alan Schneiderman also feels much anger: "If this man was drinking (too much) in a bar and no one stopped him, then that bar should be shut down. As a food server, I have refused to call cocktail waitresses for customers who were drunk and 100 percent of the time my supervisors have backed me up."