Immigrants in crash face deportation

Thursday, June 24, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

Deportation proceedings are under way for two illegal Mexican immigrants who were forced from a car because they urged a man who was giving them a ride from Arizona to Washington to stop after he hit and killed a pedestrian last week north of Las Vegas, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

Trooper Loy Hixson said shortly before 3 a.m. on June 18, a woman was walking in the road on U.S. 93, about 15 miles north of the Las Vegas, when she was hit by a 1998 Honda Civic.

The woman, April Coleman, 28, of Las Vegas became lodged in the windshield, troopers said. Police allege the driver, Jose Manuel Soto-Cabrales, 25, pulled her out and dumped her on the side of the road.

She was likely alive after the crash and left to bleed to death, Hixson said.

An immigrant woman in Soto-Cabrales' car suffered minor injuries in the crash, Hixson said. She and the immigrant man, both 27, asked Soto-Cabrales to turn around and help the victim, but he refused and forced them from the car.

"She was telling me her first thought was, 'We have to stay here and call police,' " Hixson said.

Hixson said a few miles later Soto-Cabrales turned off the highway, removed the license plates and fled.

The immigrants were discovered walking along the road shortly after the collision and were taken into custody. They are being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

The immigrants had paid Soto-Cabrales $300 each for the ride, Hixson said.

Troopers found Soto-Cabrales Saturday. He remained in the same general area, Hixson said.

He was charged with hit-and-run involving death, leaving the scene of an accident and failing to render aid. He is being held in the Clark County Detention Center on $500,000 bail.

On Wednesday, while setting bail, Justice of the Peace Anne Zimmerman gave the district attorney's office a week to file a formal complaint against Soto-Cabrales and scheduled a hearing for June 30.