Tuesday, June 27, 2017 | 9 p.m.
Drinks at a party and a heated argument preceded a crash in which an SUV flew through a northeast valley intersection and struck a car, killing two teenagers on Saturday night, according to Metro Police.
Pablo Torres-Esparza was drunk while driving his 2000 green Ford Expedition, police said.
Moments before the crash, his boyfriend, on the passenger side, asked to exit the vehicle amid a “heated” verbal fight, police said. The boyfriend later told police that they’d just left a party.
Torres-Esparza then sped toward the Marion Drive and Judson Avenue intersection at a “high rate of speed” and smashed into a 2016 Kia Sol, which had the right-of-way and was heading east, police said.
Officers and medics were dispatched to the “major collision,” near Carey Avenue and Nellis Boulevard, about 10 p.m., police said.
Two of the Kia’s passengers, Moises Rivera, 16, and Oscar Ayala, 14, both from Las Vegas, were killed, and two women suffered minor injuries, police said.
Torres-Esparza, 36, who investigators later found out had a revoked license, was sitting near his SUV when a witness, and later officers, approached him, police said. He had minor injuries and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.
He told police he was drunk and did not remember the crash, police said. He swayed and used his arms to balance himself struggled with a sobriety test, according to court documents. He also had watery and bloodshot eyes.
The report said he failed a breathalyzer test and blood also was drawn, but information on the results was not immediately available.
Torres-Esparza was booked without bail at the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of DUI and one count of driving with a revoked license, jail logs show. He’s next scheduled in court Wednesday morning.
