‘Most giving person’: Casino dealer killed in fiery crash remembered

Longtime Las Vegas residents Bob and Tinh Sequeira enjoyed the simple pleasures of more than 40 years of marriage.

Bob would say goodbye to his wife every day before she left for work.

On July 5, Tinh Sequeira, 72, left their central Las Vegas home at 6:30 p.m. for her overnight shift as a dealer at nearby Palace Station, where she had worked for the last 13 years.

Six minutes later, her 2005 Buick LeSabre was struck by a speeding 2013 Dodge Charger, which police later said was driven by 22-year-old Defon Muirente.

Sequeira’s Buick caught fire in the crash, and she was taken to University Medical Center, where she died from blunt force and thermal injuries, according to the coroner.

“She and I were together for 48 years, and I am so grateful I was able to spend that time with her,” Bob Sequeira said Wednesday.

Muirente faces charges of reckless driving resulting death, driving without a license and operating a vehicle with expired registration.

Police said the Dodge was going north on Rancho Drive toward the intersection with Glen Heather Way. Tinh Sequeira was making a left turn from Glen Heather onto Rancho when the crash occurred.

According to his arrest report, Muirente was driving 64 mph in a 35 mph zone just before the crash.

Muirente is next due in court on Aug. 10. He has not been formally charged and has been out of custody since posting bond.

‘No, that can’t be’

“She was the most giving person I’ve ever met,” Bob Sequeira said. “She would make sure that everything and everybody around her was taken care of and happy before she cared about herself.”

A week after the fatal crash, he recounted his and Tinh’s routine that night. She put her phone on the kitchen counter, the couple hugged and said “I love you” as he gave his wife a kiss goodbye. Her phone alarm went off, signaling it was time to leave for work, and he walked her to her car with their Pomeranian, Coda, in his arms to see her off.

He didn’t know anything was wrong until he realized she hadn’t called him on her first work break. He went out to check the mail and noticed a large police presence down the street.

He walked toward the scene, and his heart sank when he saw the back of his wife’s car in the wreck.

“Oh my god, no, that can’t be,” Sequeira recalled thinking.

Six hours after the crash, Sequeira was finally told that his wife had died.

They met on a blind date in Tucson, Ariz., in 1976. She was born in Vietnam and moved to the United States two years before. He was in the military at the time. The couple married in 1979.

“The more I got to know her, the more I just started to love her more and more,” Sequeira said.

They lived in Tucson until moving to Las Vegas in 1990.

She had two children, Lynda Granger and Hume Thompson, from a previous marriage, and the couple had their son, Robert Sequeira, together. They were also the parents to three dogs.

Tinh Sequeira’s three children said cooking was an embodiment of her love.

When Robert Sequeira moved to Denver, she brought a suitcase full of authentic Vietnamese cuisine, including dumplings, egg rolls and soups to fill up her son’s freezer.

“It was just a good way to bond with each other,” he said of food’s significance to their family.

Her homemade Vietnamese spicy beef soup Bún bò Huế was a favorite comfort food for Granger, her daughter.

Tinh Sequeira would make the dish when Granger visited so she could take a piece of home back with her.

“She wanted everyone to be comfortable and well fed. … You could taste how much she loved to feed you,” Thompson said in a text message.

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.