Police say aunt was driver in crash that killed 2 toddlers

The driver in the crash that killed two toddler girls in North Las Vegas was the girls’ aunt, police said. Their mother was the passenger.

Kaleah Sharelle Manning, 23, is suspected of driving while impaired in the Sunday night wreck that killed Taylor and Rose Wilmer, who were 3 and 2, respectively.

Manning had a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from her mouth every time she opened it to speak” after the crash, police alleged in a crash report released Thursday.

Raenysa Clydette-Glenn Washington, 25, the girls’ mom, was in the front passenger seat.

Manning and Washington are facing multiple charges, North Las Vegas Police Department officer Alexander Cuevas announced in a news release issued Thursday afternoon.

Both live at the same address in Henderson, according to a police crash report. The two girls also lived at the same address.

Manning faces 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 faces two counts of child neglect/endangerment resulting in death.

Because both women were still hospitalized, they were booked in absentia but hadn’t yet been booked into the Clark County Detention Center, police said.

Both girls were wearing adult seat belts instead being in the age-appropriate car seats they were required by law to be seated in while traveling in a vehicle, police allege.

According to the crash report, a silver 2004 Honda Odyssey van veered off the road on Scott Robinson Boulevard where it curves at Monte Alban Drive, north of Lone Mountain Road, just after 9:15 p.m. Sunday.

The van struck the curb on the east side of the road before the tires went up over the curb and into the landscaped buffer area separating the road from the walls of the houses on Monte Del Sol Lane that back onto Scott Robinson. The van hit a small tree, a light pole and then a large palm tree, heavily damaging the van.

Rose died at the scene. Taylor was taken to University Medical Center but died early Monday, police said.

Both Manning and Washington were in critical condition in the intensive care unit at University Medical Center, according to the crash report.

Responding police officers found Manning to be smelling of alcohol and slurring her words after the crash. Police say that her eyes were bloodshot, that she kept repeating herself, and that she said she had consumed two shots of alcohol, according to the crash report.

Blood was drawn from Manning, but the results were still pending, police said.

Eyewitnesses decried the gruesome scene in the aftermath of the crash.

On Wednesday, Tavon Wilmer, 22, the girls’ father, said the crash was “something that should never have happened.”

“My girls were beautiful, smart girls,” Wilmer said.

In a news conference Monday, Cuevas expressed similar sentiments, saying that such a tragedy was easily avoidable if the rules of the road had been followed.

“This is a call to action about DUI, speed and proper child restraints,” Cuevas said.

Manning also faces two counts of child neglect/endangerment resulting in death, two counts of operating a vehicle without child safety restraints, and failure to maintain a travel lane.

The crash is still under investigation, the crash report said.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.