Test shows driver in fatal bus stop crash over legal blood alcohol limit
A 24-year-old Las Vegas man had a blood alcohol level above the state's legal limit an hour after a Sept. 13 bus stop crash that left four dead and injured eight others, authorities said.
Gary Lee Hosey Jr., who faces nine felony charges in the crash, had a blood alcohol level of 0.087 about 45 minutes after the crash, according to the district attorney's office. The blood draw was taken by medical staff from Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and tested by Las Vegas police forensic specialists, according to prosecutors.
Previous blood tests listed Hosey's blood alcohol level at 0.06 percent two hours after the crash and 0.05 percent three hours after the crash.
His defense lawyers have questioned the tests given to Hosey, which also showed him to have THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, in his system. THC is the principal active ingredient in marijuana.
Defense lawyer Dayvid Figler has said the THC could have been ingested 12 hours or more before the crash.
Figler has said alcohol and marijuana were not significant factors in the crash. The driver of the car will be prosecuted, but speed was the main factor in the wreck, he said.
On Wednesday, lawyer Kristina Wildeveld called the late release of the third test "highly unusual and suspect," and she plans on having the evidence retested.
Hosey told police that before the crash, he drank only one beer with friends at an Ethiopian bar near the bus stop at Spring Mountain Road and Decatur Boulevard, according to his arrest report.
Police said the 2001 Monte Carlo went airborne at the intersection and slammed into the crowded bus stop about 6:30 a.m. Gerber Hernan Ayala-Tomasino Jr., 24, Johnni Lee Garner, 49, Margoth Gonzalez, 65, and Hyon Cooley, 47, were killed.
Hosey is at the Clark County Detention Center on $4 million bail.
A preliminary hearing in the case was set for Oct. 19, after which a Las Vegas justice of the peace will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to take the case to trial.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@review
journal.com or 702-380-1039.
