DUI suspect in toddler deaths had twice the legal limit, police say

A motorist accused in a North Las Vegas crash that killed her two toddler-age nieces earlier this month had more than twice the legal blood alcohol content in her body the night of the wreck, police allege.

One of Kaleah Sharelle Manning’s blood samples, taken about two hours after the Dec. 11 single-vehicle crash, came back at 0.191 percent, more than twice the .08 Nevada legal limit, police said.

Manning, 23, later told investigators that she remembered taking a shower after drinking two shots of tequila, but doesn’t remember taking the wheel of her minivan, which had no child safety restraints, according to police documents released Monday.

If Manning had been driving, she told police, she could’ve fallen asleep.

Taylor and Rose Wilmer, ages 3 and 2, respectively, died after the crash in a neighborhood near Scott Robinson Boulevard and Monte Alban Drive, near Lone Mountain Road and Clayton Street, police said.

Mother also arrested

Their mother — and Manning’s sister — Raenysa Clydette-Glenn Washington, 25, suffered life-threatening injuries. She also was arrested.

Washington told police that she knew it was not OK to put her daughters in a car with no child safety seats, but since it was not her car, “she couldn’t argue.”

Furthermore, she said she had witnessed her sister and a friend of her sister’s consume what she “believed” to be an entire bottle of tequila sometime before her daughters were fatally injured, according to police.

Manning, who is next due in court Tuesday morning, is facing three counts of DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm or death. She is also accused of driving with a suspended license and having no proof of insurance.

Washington was booked in absentia on two counts of child neglect/endangerment resulting in death.

No child seats

Manning and a friend worked delivering packages. After their shift, they picked up her sister and her daughters from a birthday party and went to the friend’s house, police said.

At that time, they told police, the girls were put in child car seats, which belonged to the friend.

But when they left the friend’s house an “undetermined” amount of time later, the friend asked for the seats back. Washington told police that she had sold her own child car seats about a week prior.

According to Washington, she asked her sister’s friend to borrow the car seats, but was laughed at, said police, who did not identify the friend.

She further said she couldn’t afford a ride share.

“Are we in trouble,” the mother asked police at some point during her interview.

Deadly crash

Manning’s 2004 Honda Odyssey was heading down Scott Robinson, where it curves at Monte Alban, when it veered off the roadway about 9:15 p.m., police said.

It then climbed a curb into a landscape buffer, smashed into a tree, light pole and then a large palm tree, police said. An estimate put the speed between 35 and 37 mph, but could’ve been “slightly” faster.

A motorist driving behind the minivan at the time of the crash told police that Manning was slumped on her seat and appeared “out of it,” according to the crash report.

An officer, who reported a strong smell of booze emanating from Manning, said that the suspect was shaking her unconscious sister sitting next to her, uttering, “I hurt somebody,” police said.

Manning repeatedly told officers that the power steering “pulled her to the left,” police wrote.

Admitted drinking shots

Rose died at the scene, while Taylor was taken to University Medical Center but died early the next day, police said. The two women also were hospitalized at UMC.

At the scene, and before she was taken to the hospital, Manning said she’d drank two shots of alcohol, adding that “I thought I was fine.”

She later told investigators what she remembered, and what she didn’t.

Manning said how she “always couldn’t believe how these types of accidents happen but acknowledged that she was now that person who caused this,” police wrote.

Police said at least one of the girls was wearing an adult-sized seat belt.

Washington told police that one of her daughters had been fuzzy and trying to unbuckle the normal seat belt. She reported climbing back to the seat, trying to calm her down, before losing consciousness, police wrote.

She told investigators she didn’t remember if she was able to pick up the child or not, police wrote.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.