Second officer facing prosecution for fatal crash named

The second officer facing criminal prosecution for his role in the fatal crash of a suspected drunken driver in May was identified as Andrew Charles Ubbens, in a Las Vegas police report obtained Tuesday.

Ubbens, who has been with the department since February 2008, was one of two officers who ignored his sergeant's commands to stop pursuing a driver in the northeast valley on May 19. The chase culminated in a five-car crash that killed Ivan Carrillo, 26, of North Las Vegas.

According to the report, police recommend that Ubbens be charged with misdemeanor reckless driving.

A second officer, Aron Carpenter, 29, who was driving another patrol car, faces more serious charges of felony reckless driving and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

Police have submitted their findings to the Clark County district attorney's office. A representative of the office said no decision on charges had been made by Tuesday.

The seven-minute pursuit ended at 10:26 p.m. near Lone Mountain Road and Lamb Boulevard when Carpenter's patrol car collided with Carrillo's Honda Civic, sending it into oncoming traffic where it collided with a Ford Contour and Dodge Ram 1500. The Dodge then hit a Pontiac Grand Prix.

The driver of the Contour, Andrea Hottel, was injured and hospitalized.

The report said Carpenter and Ubbens ignored three separate commands to discontinue the pursuit. At one point, Ubbens attempted to end the chase by using the Precision Intervention Technique, also called PIT, to bump Carrillo's car and spin it out of control. However, Carrillo regained control and continued to drive north on Lamb.

Ubbens initially told Metropolitan Police Department homicide investigators he did not use PIT on Carrillo's car, but later changed his story.

"It was only after the first interview had concluded and Officer Ubbens had time to think, did he request to change his statement," the report said.

The department trains officers to use PIT to disable cars, but at speeds faster than 40 mph it is considered "deadly force." Forensic tests later determined that Carillo was traveling between 60 mph and 72 mph at the time Ubbens hit him.

Carpenter allegedly also radioed to his sergeant that he and Ubbens had broken off the chase, when they had not.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie, in a meeting with the Review-Journal Editorial Board Tuesday, said employees can be fired for lying during an investigation but wouldn't comment further on the incident, saying it's being investigated internally.

Police first received a call at 10:09 p.m. about a small black vehicle near Lamb and Carey Avenue driving slowly and weaving between travel lanes. The caller told police the driver might have been impaired. About 10 minutes later a motorcycle officer tried to stop Carrillo's Civic, but the driver continued to move slowly until he reached Nellis Boulevard, where he sped off.

The motorcycle officer requested assistance but stopped pursuing the Civic. About five minutes later Carpenter and Ubbens took up the chase.

The report said the right front of Carpenter's vehicle hit the left rear of Carrillo's car prior to the Civic crossing into on-coming traffic at about 62 mph.

Police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said that while the two cars hit in precisely the way a PIT is done, Carpenter maintains he was not trying to do the maneuver.

"He didn't steer into him," Morgan said. "He didn't intentionally hit him."

Carpenter steered to the right because he perceived that Carrillo was moving into his travel lane, the report said.

Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy agreed with Morgan's statement.

"They were clearly in pursuit at one point ... but at the moment the final incident occurred, it was a motor vehicular accident," Murphy said Monday.

A coroner's inquest will not be convened because Carrillo's death from blunt-force trauma to the head, chest and abdomen was ruled accidental.

A coroner's office representative said she could not say whether Carrillo was drunk or under the influence of drugs because toxicology reports are released only to the next of kin.

Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.