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Man arrested in Las Vegas fatal crash has 2015 DUI conviction

A motorcyclist suspected of DUI in a deadly crash near downtown early Saturday was previously convicted of driving under the influence in 2015, Las Vegas police documents said.

Daniel James Althoff, 35, faces a charge of DUI resulting in death in the crash that killed Lyle Edward Neff II on Saturday morning at Sahara Avenue and Fremont Street.

A Metropolitan Police Department arrest report for Althoff indicates he was previously arrested for DUI on Oct. 26, 2014, and convicted in Las Vegas Municipal Court on March 23, 2015.

After crashing about 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Althoff told police he was heading home after having two beers at Fergusons Downtown, 1028 Fremont St., the report said.

Police couldn’t conduct a field sobriety test on him because of some injuries he had suffered, but an officer noted his breath smelled strongly of “an unknown intoxicating beverage.”

“He had no recollection of the crash,” the report said.

Althoff’s 2013 Triumph motorcycle, heading south on Fremont, struck Neff, who was riding his bike across Fremont in a marked crosswalk, the report said. The impact threw Neff into the side of a 2016 Nissan Sentra heading west on Sahara.

Neff died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, marking the fifth traffic death investigated by Metro this year and the first in a string of five deaths over the weekend on the Las Vegas Valley’s roadways.

The report said Althoff failed to obey a red light at the time of the crash, although Althoff’s wife told police that she was riding on the back of the motorcycle and that they had a green light at the time. She, too, smelled of alcohol and told police they had just left Fergusons Downtown, the report said.

Althoff was taken to the medical center, where he was booked into Clark County Detention Center in absentia on a charge of DUI resulting in death.

A status check is scheduled for Jan. 22 in Las Vegas Justice Court, records show.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.

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