Lawyer: Troopers didn’t get to fatal crash for nearly two hours

It took Nevada Highway Patrol troopers at least 90 minutes to arrive at the scene of a car crash outside of Las Vegas that killed five members of a Los Angeles-area family, a Clark County prosecutor said, the first of several setbacks that resulted in dropped charges against one man.

“This is unique,” said Brian Rutledge, the Clark County prosecutor who on Tuesday dropped the case against Jean Soriano, 18, who had been arrested and charged with multiple counts of felony drunk driving resulting in death.

On Monday, prosecutors for the first time heard Soriano say he was not the driver when a 1999 Dodge SUV rear-ended a van on Interstate 15 about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas and killed five people on March 30.

The Orange County native initially told police he had “too many” beers and was driving during the March 30 wreck. Soriano’s lawyer, Frank Cofer of the Cofer, Geller & Durham law firm, said his client was “coerced” and “intimidated” to take the fall for the actual driver, Alfred Gomez, 23.

Gomez downplayed the seriousness of the crash and told Soriano he had a family to take care of so he couldn’t go to jail, Cofer said.

Despite the dropped charges, Soriano still faces prosecution in California for allegedly escaping a juvenile detention facility in Santa Ana in February.

The investigation now turns to Gomez, who was not tested for drugs or alcohol.

“There’s a difference between showing that it was not Mr. Soriano and putting a complete case against Mr. Gomez to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt,” Rutledge said.

He declined to say if a warrant would be issued for Gomez’s arrest, and Nevada Highway Patrol referred all comments to Clark County prosecutors.

Soriano’s attorney presented Rutledge with DNA evidence that shows someone other than Soriano was handling the steering wheel and gearshift. A shoe-print on the driver’s-side door from where it was kicked out after the crash also did not match Soriano’s shoe. Blood and injuries to Soriano’s face match evidence found in the passenger side of the vehicle, Cofer said.

Since both Soriano and Gomez told troopers that Soriano was driving, Rutledge said, “They assumed that Soriano was telling the truth.”

The crash location, the time it took for authorities to respond and the fact that all the interviews took place hours later at hospitals were all out of the ordinary.

“Everything about this case was unusual, nothing was typical,” Rutledge said.

Cofer called the investigation incomplete.

“I think that they got what was a good enough confession from one of the passengers, then they basically didn’t do any work after that,” he said. “You can’t rely on the confession from an intimidated, intoxicated 18-year-old who’s just been through a traumatic event.”

There were seven people in the van that was hit, and only two survived. The five killed were: Genaro Fernandez, 41, of Norwalk; Raudel Fernandez-Avila, 49, and Belen Fernandez, 53, of Lynwood; and Leonardo Fernandez-Avila, 45, and Angela Sandoval, 13, of Los Angeles.

Rutledge said there is evidence that Gomez was drinking and driving, but declined to elaborate. Soriano’s arrest report notes that beer bottles were found inside the vehicle.

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