Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Police say March death accident, no charges
Woman was run over by SUV in a driveway
Beatrice Perez got the call from the Clark County coroner’s office in late March.
The person on the phone told the Los Angeles woman that her 42-year-old daughter, Carina Vasquez of Las Vegas, was dead.
Vasquez had been run over by an SUV in an east Las Vegas driveway, and police homicide detectives were investigating the vehicle’s driver to determine whether a crime had been committed.
“All I remember is hearing myself crying,” Perez said in a recent phone interview. “Everyone was devastated because Carina was a good person to be around.”
Some seven months later, police have concluded after an extensive investigation that Vasquez’s death was an accident and that no charges will be pursued against driver Ramiro Salgado, 29, of Las Vegas.
Police reports indicate that Salgado told police he was backing his SUV out of the driveway of his family’s home off Nellis Boulevard when Vasquez, a passenger in his front seat, opened the door and got out, causing her to be dragged under the vehicle and killed.
The decision by authorities not to pursue charges is not sitting well with Perez, however, because police reports indicate that Salgado later acknowledged smoking methamphetamine with Vasquez before getting behind the wheel. And a home surveillance video shows some sort of struggle between Salgado and Vasquez in the vehicle before her death.
Police said they decided against pursuing charges after Salgado passed a field sobriety test at the scene.
“The male passed a field sobriety test,” officer Misael Parra said. “The officer that did so did not observe any signs of impairment. Because of that, there was no probable cause to make an arrest. In order for us to draw blood, we would have to have probable cause.”
‘Suspicious nature’ of call
Salgado did not respond to a request for comment for this story. A police report showed he called officers to his home in the 5600 block of Fairlight Drive at 9:47 a.m. on March 25. He said he was backing his SUV out of his driveway when Vasquez bailed out of the front seat.
“As Salgado reversed down the driveway, Vasquez opened the passenger side door and exited the vehicle, while the car was in motion,” police wrote in an investigative summary of the evidence in the case.
Police said fatal traffic officers and homicide detectives responded to the scene “due to the suspicious nature of the call.”
The police report indicated that a search warrant was obtained for Salgado’s home and vehicle and that police obtained poor-quality surveillance video of the fatality from both Salgado’s family home and neighboring residences.
“It appeared Salgado struck Vasquez with his right arm immediately prior to her rolling out of the vehicle,” police wrote in the report. “It also appeared that she used her left arm, reached over her own body to open the passenger side door at the same time she began to roll out of the vehicle.”
Salgado would tell police, ac
cording to the report, that he and Vasquez had smoked methamphetamine and that Vasquez was becoming paranoid.
“Salgado wanted to get Vasquez away from his mother’s house before she was to cause any problems,” police said. “There was no argument between him and Vasquez, but he couldn’t remember what they were talking about while he was backing out of the driveway.”
The coroner’s office determined that Vasquez died from blunt force injuries. Her manner of death was described as undetermined.
Charges ‘not warranted’
Perez said her daughter was a divorced mom who moved to Las Vegas in 2003. She at one point worked as a “cigarette girl” at a Las Vegas casino. Perez described her daughter as a good person with a “caring soul.”
The woman questioned the decision not to draw Salgado’s blood at any point, as he admitted to police that he smoked methamphetamine before driving.
“A blood test was done on my daughter, a toxicology test, but nothing was done on this guy?” Perez said.
Parra said homicide detectives investigated the case as a suspicious death. The detectives did not, how
ever, gather evidence indicating that a crime was committed.
“In consulting with the district attorney, they were not able to find any applicable charges,” the officer said. “So at that point the case was closed, and nobody was arrested.”
Parra said police sympathize with Perez.
“We can understand why she would be frustrated that no one was taken into custody,” he said. “We did everything that we could. We investigated. We looked at video. We consulted with the district attorney and, in consulting with them, we came to the determination that unfortunately this was a terrible accident that happened.”
The Clark County district attorney’s office issued a statement Thursday saying there was insufficient evidence for police to request a prosecution.
“We were provided with the entire investigation, including the surveillance video from the driveway where Ms. Vasquez lost her life,” according to the statement. “The surveillance video was inconclusive; it was impossible to determine what occurred inside the car prior to Ms. Vasquez falling from the passenger side of the car. There were no eyewitnesses to this matter. Without additional evidence, we agreed with the decision of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that criminal charges were not warranted.”
Ron Peres passed away in his Las Vegas home on September 28, 2020 in the company of his two sons, Mark and Daron. Ron was born on May 23, 1938 in Great Falls, Montana, to Ferdinand Narciss Peres and Mildred (née Erickson) Peres. His grandfather, Ferdinand Jean Pérès came to the United States on the ship La Gascogne from Anères France to Ellis Island in 1896 and went on with his three brothers (Camille, Narcisse, and Theodore) to homestead in Montana. Ron grew up in Great Falls, and graduated from Great Falls High, Class of 1955. He joined the Navy as a hospital corpsman in 1956. He served on the USS Hornet and was a proud veteran. He married Judy Solem in 1959, and they had his two sons, Mark in 1959 and Daron in 1965. He later married Lucy Mohatt (née Jimenez) in 1973 who had three daughters, Lori (Rose), Kim and Geri (Seona). Ron and Lucy were married 42 years when Lucy passed in 2015. He was the last living of four Peres brothers, Ferdinand (Fred), Robert (Bob) and Byron (Babe), preceding him. Ron worked for Whittlesea Bell cabs and limousines many years and drove a limo on the Las Vegas Strip for over 30 years. He had some great stories. We will always remember him as a cheerful and loving father. Ron’s desire was to be cremated, and for those that loved him to have a party rather than a funeral. In lieu of tears, flowers or donations, the family invites you to embrace your loved ones, say a prayer, and have a little party in Ron’s honor.