Bail set for suspect in crash that killed boy at bus stop

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, May 19, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo set bail at $500,000 for the man charged with crashing his car into a Las Vegas bus stop on May 3, killing a 4-year-old boy and hospitalizing the child's mother.

Police said 32-year-old Nicolas Serrano-Villagrana's blood-alcohol level was more than 2 1/2 times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

Abbatangelo said the high bail was warranted because Serrano-Villagrana previously had been convicted of drunken driving in North Las Vegas in 2002 and had been arrested in 1999 on suspicion of drunken driving.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson had requested bail be set at $1 million last week. Nelson told the court that tests have revealed that Serrano-Villagrana's blood alcohol content was 0.20. The legal limit for drivers in Nevada is 0.08.

Philip Singer, Serrano-Villagrana's attorney, said his client would not be able to post the $500,000 bail. Singer will ask Abbatangelo to reduce the bail at the preliminary hearing.

Serrano-Villagrana is facing felony charges of drunken driving resulting in death in connection with the accident earlier this month that killed Angel Avendano. Because the boy's 32-year-old mother, Eulogia Avendano, and a second woman, Nijailia Altitijka Graves, were injured in the crash, Serrano-Villagrana is also charged with two counts of felony DUI with substantial bodily harm.

Singer said Serrano-Villagrana's defense is simple: "He wasn't driving the car."

Singer said his office has received countless phone calls since last week with eyewitnesses saying that Serrano-Villagrana wasn't driving the truck that crashed into the bus stop.

Singer said witnesses have left phone messages in Spanish saying they saw Serrano-Villagrana exiting the vehicle from the passenger side, while another man exited from the driver's side.

On the day of the crash, however, police said witnesses pointed out Serrano-Villagrana as the driver and they saw him throw an 18-pack of Bud Light out of the truck.

Singer said the state is making it hard for him to prepare for the upcoming May 27 preliminary hearing because it is not giving him full access to the the truck that caused the crash.

He has asked for permission to test the truck's brakes, but has been allowed only to take photos, he said.