Victim in suspected DUI crash was veteran, federal employee

A man killed by a suspected drunk driver in downtown Las Vegas a week ago was a military veteran and longtime federal employee in Las Vegas, a friend said this week.

Julio Maymi-Diaz, 50, of Las Vegas, died when a vehicle he was a passenger in was struck at Las Vegas Boulevard South at Gass Avenue in the early morning hours of Dec. 10. A motorist who police say caused the crash, Daysia Brown, 24, of Henderson, has been charged with driving under the influence causing death.

“Julio was smart, loving, polite. Just an amazing person,” said his friend, Ruth Ibarra of Las Vegas.

Maymi-Diaz was from Puerto Rico. He served in the U.S. Air Force, then worked for the federal civil service for decades. He worked for the Internal Revenue Service in Las Vegas and most recently worked as an investigator with the Department of Labor, also in Las Vegas.

“He was a proud Air Force veteran and he often assisted and participated in veterans events,” Ibarra said.

All of Maymi-Diaz’s loved ones live in Puerto Rico, and they were just notified of his death. Ibarra has created a GoFundMe page aimed at helping to pay for the returning of Maymi-Diaz’s body to his homeland for funeral services and burial on behalf of his family.

Ibarra said Maymi-Diaz was just starting to work on a book series named after his niece, Krystal, who was killed by a drunk driver when she was 18. The book series was going to be about Krystal’s adventures alongside Maymi-Diaz’s cherished, real-life dog, Karma, who had to be rescued from Maymi-Diaz’s downtown Las Vegas apartment days after his death. The first series of books was going to be called “Krystal’s and Karmas Quest, Krystal and the Monster in the Snowy Mountains.”

Police said Brown was driving a Jeep eastbound on Gass when her vehicle collided with a Toyota sedan at 1:52 a.m. Maymi-Diaz was a passenger in the Toyota and died at University Medical Center. The Clark County coroner’s office said he died from blunt force trauma.

Police said Brown told an officer after the crash “she was drunk and that she deserved what was coming to her,” police said in her arrest report. However, the results of tests on blood drawn from Brown have not been released.

“He loved it here,” Ibarra said of Maymi-Diaz. “His apartment was literally six blocks from where the accident happened. Three minutes.”

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.