Charges reduced in bus stop crash

By Matt Pordum

Friday, Jan. 7, 2005 | 11:18 a.m.

A man charged with crashing his truck into a Las Vegas bus stop, killing a 4-year-old boy and hospitalizing the child's mother, will face one less charge because prosecutors can't find an alleged third victim.

Nicolas Serrano-Villagrana, 32, is scheduled to go to trial Monday before District Judge Joe Bonaventure on felony charges of drunken driving resulting in death in connection with the May crash 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 was also charged with two counts of felony DUI with substantial bodily harm.

Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson, however, informed the court Thursday that Graves could not be located and he would be filing an amended complaint against Serrano-Villagrana to eliminate one of the counts of felony DUI with substantial bodily harm.

Still, Nelson said he is "ready to go forward on Monday" with the trial. He expects to call 10 witnesses and said if found guilty Serrano-Villagrana faces a maximum of four to 40 years in prison.

And Serrano-Villagrana's attorney, Philip Singer, said Nelson told him investigators will be "still looking for her (Graves) and won't give up until 5 p.m. Friday."

Singer said Nelson offered Serrano-Villagrana six to 20 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to one count of felony DUI with substantial bodily harm. Singer rejected the offer.

The basis for the prosecution's case against Serrano-Villagrana is unlikely to change from the case laid out at his preliminary hearing as Nelson said the same witnesses would be utilized for the trial.

Nelson provided lab results during the last day of the preliminary hearing that indicated there was cocaine in Serrano-Villagrana's system at the time of the crash. Police also allege that his blood-alcohol level was more than 2 1/2 times the legal limit of 0.08.

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

At Serrano-Villagrana's preliminary hearing Nelson called several witnesses to the stand, but all had a different story about who they saw driving the truck.

Eulogia Avendano testified she never saw Serrano-Villagrana but heard from someone at the scene that he was in the vehicle and was removing beer from the truck.

Celia Ortiz and Arnulfo Rodriguez, a married couple from California, were in the a car together when they saw the crash, but only Ortiz identified Serrano-Villagrana as being in the truck.

Gabriella Solis, who lives some 92 feet across the street from the scene of the crash, said Serrano-Villagrana was the driver and removed beer from the vehicle as he exited the truck. She also testified, however, that although she was wearing her glasses in court she did not have them on when she witnessed the crash.

Singer said he would call Solis' daughter to the stand and he expects her to "tell a much different story than her mother tells at trial." He said his investigator will also testify and demonstrate there was no way Solis could have even seen out of her window because "boxes and a weight bench" covered the window.

Perhaps the most interesting testimony of the preliminary hearing came from Graves, the woman whom prosecutors cannot find. In custody at the time on a petty larceny warrant, Graves said that from four inches away from the front windshield she could not identify Serrano-Villagrana as being the truck. Graves did say she saw two Hispanic men in the truck.

Without Graves, prosecutors might be forced to rely on the transcript of her preliminary hearing testimony at trial.

Singer said he would fight to have the transcript introduced because Graves was literally "pressed against the car and couldn't identify the driver" as being Serrano-Villagrana.

Singer also said he planned to call two other witnesses that would prove much more reliable than the prosecutors planned witnesses.

He said a man who was asleep in his apartment at an apartment complex adjacent to where the car crash took place would say "he was awakened by the crash and in a second turned to the window to see my guy (Serrano-Villagrana) exiting the car from the passenger door."

Singer said he would also call the apartment complex's maintenance man who said within "30 seconds of hearing the crash, he walked up to the scene and asked Serrano-Villagrana if he was driving and he said no."

"There is so much reasonable doubt involved in this case it's silly," Singer said.

Singer said the driver of the vehicle is still missing as the "district attorney's office and police have failed to find the true defendant in this case, but they certainly have found someone to blame in my client."

He said Serrano-Villagrana "since Day 1" has "expressed extreme sympathy and compassion to the Avendano family," but he wasn't the driver of the truck.

Singer said Serrano-Villagrana remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center, and is under a U.S immigration hold because he is a citizen of Mexico.

Singer expects 15 to 20 members of Serrano-Villagrana's family to be in court during next week's trial. One is flying to Las Vegas from Mexico to offer support, Singer said.