NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A driver who police say sped through a red light before crashing his Dodge Challenger into a minivan, killing himself, his passenger and seven members of a North Las Vegas family, had a history of speeding and prior criminal convictions for drug and battery offenses, law enforcement authorities confirmed on Monday.
Officer Alexander Cuevas of the North Las Vegas Police Department said the driver who caused the crash, Gary Dean Robinson, 59, of North Las Vegas, had a prior history of traffic and criminal offenses.
Robinson pleaded guilty a short nine days before Saturday’s horrific deadly crash to speeding in Las Vegas in December. As a result, he was fined $150, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, citing court documents.
The driver who caused untold grief was also cited for speeding by Las Vegas police last August; by North Las Vegas police three times between November 2020 and February 2021; and by Henderson police once in 2017, the Review-Journal discovered.
The New York Post reported that Robinson had a state prison record after pleading guilty in 2004 to felony cocaine possession and violating terms of his probation. Moreover, he had a 2009 misdemeanor conviction for battery on a courtroom bailiff, according to court records.
On Saturday, Robinson’s maroon Dodge Challenger raced at more than 100 mph through a red traffic signal at a busy crossroad, slamming into a Toyota Sienna minivan, Law Officer reported.
This photo released by the North Las Vegas Police Department shows a Dodge Challenger in North Las Vegas on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (North Las Vegas Police Department)
The Toyota contained seven family members. When the Challenger crashed into the Sienna, it triggered a chain-reaction of collissions involving three other vehicles including a Ford Fusion in which a 31-year-old woman was critically injured, police said.
A total of 15 people were involved in the sequence of crashes, Cuevas said.
A spokesman for Clark County Coroner said it could take up to four weeks before investigators will learn from blood toxicology whether Robinson was impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, the Post reported.
Killed in the minivan were the driver, Jose Zacarias-Caldera, 35; and passengers David Mejia-Barrera, 25; Gabriel Mejia-Barrera, 23; Bryan Axel Zacarias, 15; Lluvia Daylenn Zacarias, 13; Adrian Zacarias, 10; and Fernando Yeshua Mejia, 5. They lived in North Las Vegas, according to a spokesperson for the Clark County Coroner’s Office.
The Coroner’s Office on Monday also identified the passenger who died in Robinson’s wrecked vehicle as Tanaga Ravel Miller, 46, of North Las Vegas.
