Metro Police investigators and a crime scene analyst look over a fatal accident on North Lamb Boulevard near Cheyenne Avenue Friday, April 23, 2021. Two people died in the crash, police said
Tuesday, April 27, 2021 | 6:40 p.m.
Avery Linard Nellems
A motorist accused of causing a head-on crash that killed two people Friday morning on a northeast Las Vegas roadway told investigators that he was driving home after work and thought he might have fallen asleep, according to Metro Police.
Mumbling and “confused,” Avery Linard Nellems, who sustained minor injuries, told officers that he knew he was in a crash but didn’t remember what happened, according to his arrest report.
Nellems, 23, is facing two counts of DUI resulting in death.
Police did not outline how they concluded that Nellems was allegedly impaired. Results from a blood test weren’t provided in the arrest report, though Nellems underwent a field sobriety test about an hour after the crash, before he was taken to University Medical Center.
Nellems walked out of the Clark County Detention Center Saturday with the stipulation that he not drive or consume alcohol or drugs, according to Las Vegas Justice Court logs, which show that prosecutors asked for an extension in filing a criminal complaint.
The crash occurred about 5:45 a.m. on Lamb Boulevard near Cecile Avenue.
Nellems, who was northbound in a 2015 Nissan Rogue, veered into oncoming traffic, striking a smaller Nissan Versa, killing driver Romualdo Barrientos, 47, and his passenger, 30-year-old Danisha Smith, who was riding in the back, police said.
The Rogue was going 50 mph and the Versa 43 mph shortly before the crash, which left the car with “catastrophic” damage, a Metro investigator wrote in the arrest report.
