Indictment returned in fatal accident

Monday, Aug. 5, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

A 32-year-old Las Vegas man will be arraigned Wednesday on 17 counts pertaining to a traffic accident that killed a woman.

Thomas Mannix was indicted by a Clark County grand jury Thursday on five counts each of driving under the influence, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. He also faces one count each of involuntary manslaughter and being under the influence.

Mannix is being held in the Clark County Detention Center on $3 million bail.

Mannix's passenger, Deborah Fornuto, 47, was killed in a July 11 crash.

Police said Mannix, driving a Buick Roadmaster westbound on Charleston Boulevard, failed to stop for a red light at Buffalo Drive and struck a Dodge van driven by Tina Boudreaux, 39, of Las Vegas. The collision pushed the Dodge into a Ford pickup, and the Dodge struck a Toyota.

After hitting a light pole, Mannix got out of the vehicle, looked at Fornuto and ran away, officers said. Witnesses followed the driver to a nearby house and called police. Both officers and paramedics struggled to get Mannix into an ambulance, police said.

Fornuto was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. All of the others involved in the accident received moderate injuries.

According to Associated Press reports, an Illinois medical examiner ruled in 1990 that six of Fornuto's children did not die as a result of sudden infant death as originally thought, but were suffocated.

A grand jury was convened in the case, but Fornuto was never charged.