Teen accused of murder in fatal Las Vegas crash will be held without bail

A judge ordered a no-bail hold Tuesday for a driver who faces murder charges in connection with a fatal crash.

Jose Gutierrez, 19, was arrested last week following the 12-vehicle crash on West Cheyenne Avenue near North Jones Boulevard. His pregnant girlfriend, Adilene Duran Rincon, 20, and a driver from another vehicle, Edward Garcia, 38, died at the scene.

“My overwhelming concern at this point, at this early stage of the proceedings, is the potential penalty (and) is the nature of the charges,” said Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure. “I am entering the finding that the state has met their burden for a no-bail hold at this stage of the proceedings.”

Gutierrez has been charged with counts of murder, reckless driving, attempted murder and battery.

A criminal complaint filed Friday alleges that he was trying to kill his girlfriend “by deliberately driving his vehicle at an excessive speed into one or more vehicles that were stopped at a red light.”

Defense attorney Thomas Moskal argued that prosecutors offered little evidence to prove the elements of first-degree murder and suggested the crash could have been triggered by his client suffering a seizure while driving.

“This is a very strange case, because a lot of cases with first-degree murder, you’re dealing with somebody shooting a gun, stabbing, using some kind of deadly weapon,” said Moskal, adding that prosecutors were using a “very novel theory” in his client’s case.

Prosecutors have taken the stance that Gutierrez was using the car he drove as a deadly weapon.

At a Friday news conference, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said prosecutors believe Gutierrez acted intentionally and was not impaired by alcohol or drugs.

Witnesses reported to police that the Infiniti driven by Gutierrez was traveling around 100 mph in a 45 mph zone. Gutierrez did not slow before hitting vehicles stopped at a red light, police have said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Giancarlo Pesci told the judge Gutierrez was a danger to the community.

“We have potentially the idea of a seizure,” he said. “We also have the idea that he was intending to end the relationship that he had and that’s in fact what happened, because she’s now dead.”

Gutierrez was driving “exceptionally fast, at least over 71 miles an hour” and apparently did not brake, according to Pesci.

Besides those killed, two victims were seriously injured, the prosecutor said.

Moskal referred to Duran Rincon as Gutierrez’s fiancee and stressed his client’s ties to the community: that he was born in Las Vegas and his family also lives in the city. The defendant has worked as a flagger and has “little to no criminal history,” he said.

The defense attorney said Gutierrez suffered a concussion and could not recall the crash when police interviewed him.

He also told detectives he’d had seizures since he was 5, Moskal said.

“This really doesn’t make any sense other than he suffered a seizure while he was driving and that’s why the accident happened,” said the lawyer. “Now, that’s a tragedy. I’m not saying there’s not any criminal liability there, but it’s a huge problem for the state when it comes to provability of the first-degree murder charges here.”

Moskal said after court that he intends to submit evidence to prosecutors about Gutierrez’s history of epilepsy.

Pesci said Gutierrez should not have been driving if he has seizures. Police said in a report that had he suffered a seizure, the car he was driving “would have slowed or decreased speed and possibly drifted to one side of the roadway.”

Gutierrez pleaded no contest to resisting a public officer in June, received a suspended sentence and had his case closed after completing impulse control counseling.

In the prior case, police accused him of threatening an officer responding to a call in which a “female cried, stating that a male had hit her.” An arrest report alleged he told the officer: “I’ll kill you” and “I’ll shoot you.”

Newly released body camera footage from the prior incident shows Gutierrez charging at Metropolitan Police Department officers in a fighting stance, shouting threats, and using a racial slur.

Moments later, a group of adults, presumably relatives, tried to console Guiterrez.

Gabriela Rincon, the female crash victim’s mother, sobbed as she left the hearing.

“God knows what he did,” she said. “It’s all in God’s hand(s).”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X. Review-Journal reporter Akiya Dillon contributed to this report.