Official: Driver in crash that killed 2 was above DUI limit

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas woman had a blood-alcohol level nearly twice Nevada’s legal limit when her SUV struck and killed a New Mexico couple crossing a busy street last week near downtown Las Vegas casinos, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Mykael Lanice-Lynn Terrell, 28, was arrested at her apartment shortly after the Dec. 28 crash that killed William Clayton Baxter Jr. and Kristie Eileen Baxter of Hobbs, New Mexico. Police said in an arrest report that Terrell “denied drinking any alcohol or using any marijuana products.”

However, a blood sample obtained a short time later showed Terrell’s blood-alcohol percent was 0.15%, prosecutor Eric Bauman told The Associated Press. Bauman did not immediately say if Terrell was believed to have used marijuana.

Terrell is free on $100,000 bond. She made a brief appearance Wednesday before a Las Vegas judge who assigned a deputy public defender to her case and warned Terrell not to violate strict terms of release, including a ban on driving and electronic location monitoring.

The public defender, Talia Walkenshaw, did not immediately respond later to a message from the AP.

Terrell faces six felony charges, including two counts of driving under the influence causing death that each carry a mandatory minimum sentence of two to 20 years in state prison. The other charges are reckless driving causing death and failure to stop at the scene of a fatal crash.

She was not asked Wednesday to enter a plea. Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure set her next court date for Jan. 18.

In the police arrest report, an emergency medical technician told investigators he was parked with a police officer in a DUI response van about a block south of the crash scene at 4th and Fremont streets when he saw a red SUV later linked to Terrell driving “at a high rate of speed” up 4th Street, passing a car and nearly hitting another pedestrian moments before the Baxters were struck.

Police said the couple was crossing 4th Street against a “don’t walk” signal. The intersection, with a marked walkway beneath traffic signals, is often crowded with people making their way among casinos, stores, kiosks, bars and restaurants beneath a four-block-long lighted video canopy.