Man gets prison time for DUI crash that killed road worker
A 45-year-old man was sentenced Monday to between eight and 20 years in prison for a DUI crash that left a Las Vegas road worker dead earlier this year.
Rafael Mendez-Soto, 45, pleaded guilty in September to DUI resulting in the death of Robert Lee Lujan, 57, and leaving the scene of an accident.
The crash occurred July 20 on West Sahara Avenue near Valley View Boulevard.
Lujan was cutting asphalt with a wet saw in a bus lane, behind his parked and 2001 Chevrolet W4500, when he was hit, according to police.
His son, Jesse Lujan, told Chief District Judge Jennifer Togliatti at a sentencing hearing Monday that his father was the patriarch of their family.
“Once you met my dad, you were thought of as family,” Jesse Lujan said. “My dad wasn’t simply a road worker. He was a father, a husband, a papa, an uncle, a brother, a son. And most of all he was a man, a true man, who made me a man.”
The tool he was using flew from his hands, hitting another car, police said. He died at the scene.
Mendez-Soto, who was driving a 2004 Ford F-150, ran from the scene. Police arrested him a short time later after finding him hiding in a dumpster in a nearby apartment complex.
Togliatti also ordered Mendez-Soto to pay more than $2,000 and install an alcohol-monitoring device for three years after his release from prison.
“You have an opportunity, should you choose to take it, to make other people aware of what happens when you drink and drive, and how it can ruin lives,” Togliatti told the defendant. “You have opportunities still, and I would strongly urge you to take advantage of them when you are released.”
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
