KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasJurors Hearing Serrano Villagrana DUI Case
(Jan. 11) -- A jury is now deliberating the fate of a Las Vegas man accused of driving drunk and plowing into a bus stop and killing a young boy. Jurors heard emotional testimony from the child's mother who was also injured in that tragic crash.
An emotional Eulogia Avendano took the stand Tuesday morning and recounted the moments following the crash that took her 4-year old son's life and seriously injured her and another woman at a bus stop last May.
Both sides rested Tuesday without the defendant, 32-year-old Nicolas Serrano-Villagrana, taking the stand in his own defense.
During two days of testimony, prosecutors presented three eyewitnesses who identified Serrano as the driver of the red pick up truck that plowed into the bus stop near Eastern and Cedar.
But in closing arguments, Serrano's defense attorney argued that eyewitness accounts from the scene that day were vague and inconsistent and that Serrano was not behind the wheel of his own car, but was instead a passenger.
Defense attorney Philip Singer says the unidentified driver fled the scene. "Passengers stick around, drivers run away. Guilty people run away, innocent people stick around."
Also in closing arguments, prosecutors reminded the jury Serrano had cocaine in his system and a blood alcohol level of .22, which is nearly three times the legal limit.
Prosecutor Bruce Nelson said, "He made a combination of choices that turned out to be evil. And as a result, a four-year-old boy is dead and his mother and another lady is seriously injured. That is what the defendant did and that's what he should be convicted of."
Serrano-Villagrana is charged with three counts of felony DUI. If convicted he faces up to sixty years in prison.
(Jan. 10) -- Was it a case of mistaken identity or is the right man on trial? That's what jurors are hearing from attorneys in the case against Nicholas Serrano Villagrana. Villigrana is charged with driving drunk into a bus stop and killing a 4-year-old boy.
It was a devastating accident as innocent bystanders were waiting for the bus on Eastern and Cedar Street. Four-year-old Angel Avendano was killed when a red pick up truck plowed into the bus stop. His mother was injured and so was a pedestrian, Nijailia Graves.
Graves testified that she got a look at the man driving the truck. "I don't know what his face looked like but I know he had on a hat."
Nicholas Serrano Villagrana was also wearing a white hat and admitted he was in the truck that killed Avendano. But his attorney says he was the passenger.
Philip Singer, Villagrana's attorney, said, "Mr. Serrano was intoxicated. He had cocaine in his system. He was intoxicated. He had blood shot eyes. He had all indications of intoxication. We're not denying that, but it's not a crime to do that. It's a crime to do that if he's charged with doing it and driving, which he didn't do."
Villagrana's attorney says no one knows who the driver was because that person fled the scene. But prosecutors presented eyewitnesses who said they saw Villagrana throwing a 12-pack of beer out of the truck and asking the eyewitnesses to do him a favor and say he was not driving.
Translator for eyewitness, Celia Ortiz, said, "He was trying to convince the people that he was not the one who did it. He was trying to ask them if they could do a favor."
Prosecutors say they have the right man and he will face 2 to 60 years in prison if he's found guilty on all three counts of felony DUI.
Police say that Villigrana's blood alcohol level was two and a half times the legal limit. And cocaine was also found in his system at the time of the crash.
