Decades in prison ordered for woman who killed 2 kids in Las Vegas hit-and-run crash

A judge ordered a 24- to 60-year prison sentence Monday for a woman who killed two children in a crash while driving a stolen vehicle.

Nikki Serrat, 33, pleaded guilty in September to three counts of failing to stop at the scene of a crash involving death or personal injury.

“You forever have to live with the fact that your choices killed two children,” District Judge Danielle Pieper told her.

Serrat fled from police trying to stop the stolen car before the deadly hit-and-run collision near East Flamingo Road and the Pecos-McLeod Interconnect in November.

Taliyah Lewis, 6, and Dante Lewis, 11, were taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center but did not survive.

Cynthia Alvarado, the mother of the victims, told the judge she will never see her children grow up, never teach her son to drive, never hold a quinceañera for her daughter, who loved sparkles and dresses.

The children did not deserve what happened to them, she said. After the sentencing, she said she wished Serrat had received a life term.

The sentence Pieper awarded was the maximum Serrat could have received based on her guilty plea.

Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist said Serrat was driving about 73 mph in a 45 mph zone when she hit the van carrying the victims. She is associated with a group that steals vehicles, he said.

When the crash occurred, she was on probation in an attempted unauthorized absence constituting escape from prison case, according to the prosecutor and court records.

Her criminal history includes “felony after felony after felony,” Hallquist said.

Records show she also has been convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery in a 2009 case and operating premises to alter, destroy or disassemble motor vehicles in 2021.

Serrat saw an officer’s lights and sirens and decided she would not go back to prison, Hallquist said. Instead of stopping, she sped away so quickly that the officer had to disengage from the chase.

After the crash, she fled again and was found at a cousin’s house a day later, according to the prosecutor.

Serrat apologized to the victims’ family and said she did not commit the crash intentionally.

“I’m not a criminal,” she said. “I just made a huge mistake that day. I’ve learned my lesson for sure. I’m taking life seriously, and I’m no longer running from my problems.”

Defense attorney Adam Vander Heyden said the van that was struck had made a left turn on a red light. Serrat had a green light, he said, but was speeding. She accepted responsibility, he said.

Hallquist said after court that Alvarado was in the intersection and had to stop for a passing police car, then finished the turn she was making. Serrat used a right turn lane to bypass stopped traffic before the collision, he said.

Christopher Lewis told the judge about learning in the aftermath of the crash that his son had died and his daughter was decapitated internally.

“Hearing that kind of news, that two of my children are gone in a blink of an eye, that’s not fair to me. That’s not fair to my family,” Lewis said.

He will not watch his son, his firstborn, his “twin,” go to college and graduate, he said. He can no longer see his youngest daughter, whom he described as the “most beautiful girl.”

“I have nightmares,” Lewis said. “I see their face(s) every night.”

Debbie Daggs, the grandmother of Taliyah and Dante, said she was present when they were born but never imagined she would be there to say goodbye to them.

“Our lives have been robbed, and we can’t get back,” she said. “We lost two beautiful little kids because of poor choices.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.