Testing determined that the motorist in a high-speed crash that killed her baby son on July 12 had more than twice the legal blood alcohol level, prosecutors said Monday, announcing second-degree murder charges against her and the boy’s father.
“The recklessness and wanton disregard both parents exhibited in this incident are unacceptable,” said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson in a news release. “They caused the avoidable death of an innocent 1-year-old boy and endangered the lives of many others who were on the roads that day.”
Prosecutors on Monday added a count of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon (vehicle) to the criminal complaints of Lauren Prescia and Cameron Hubbard-Jones.
They allege both parents (in separate) cars traveled in excess of 120 mph in a “speed contest” before the woman clipped a car at Lake Mead and Rampart boulevards before smashing into the marquee of a shopping center, which cut her car in two and killed her child.
Prescia, 23, was initially jailed on one count each of DUI resulting in death, reckless driving, child abuse, and neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm, and released on $50,000 bail. Prosecutors asked the court Monday morning to raise the bond to $100,000, which she’s since posted.
Hubbard-Jones, 23, was taken into custody on a count of reckless driving three days after the crash after video emerged of both cars speeding down Rampart before the crash.
He’d initially told detectives that he was tailing Prescia at 60 mph because she said he was going to beat him home during a custody exchange, police said. He estimated the woman had only accelerated to 80 mph.
Both were on the phone during the crash, a phone call in which Hubbard-Jones claimed he’d been pleading with the woman to slow down because their child was in her car, police said.
A police investigation determined both cars, which had passed each other, had accelerated to 120 mph, prosecutors said.
Prescia entered the Lake Mead and Rampart intersection and hit a turning car at 121 mph, veering off the road and hitting the marquee. She walked away on her own, while her son died in his child car seat in the rear of the severed car.
She slurred her words and smelled of alcohol and told officers that she had drunk 24 ounces of an alcoholic seltzer beverage more than three hours before the crash, police said. Her blood alcohol level was .176, more than twice the .08 limit, prosecutors said.
Little was known as to why both suspects were speeding, where they were coming from or where they were heading.
A judge also approved Hubbard-Jones’ monitored release Monday contingent on a $100,000 bond, which wasn’t clear if he’d yet posted this afternoon. Both are prohibited from driving or having contact with each other, Las Vegas Justice Court records show.
"I do not know what else we can do to stop people from making the potentially deadly choice to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol," Wolfson said. "I am at a loss as to why a person would have such disregard for their own child’s safety."
Both are next expected in court on Aug. 3.