Father arrested in street racing crash that left baby dead in Las Vegas
Las Vegas police have arrested the father of a deceased baby after investigators found that he and the mother had been street racing leading up to the crash that killed their son.
Cameron Hubbard-Jones was arrested on a reckless driving charge after police spoke to witnesses and reviewed video evidence that indicated both he and Lauren Prescia were traveling more than 100 mph while trying to pass each other prior to the crash, according to a Wednesday news release from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Investigators charged Prescia with DUI and reckless driving after determining her vehicle was traveling 121 mph when she hit a car merging into her lane.
Police were called at 7:17 p.m. Sunday to North Rampart and West Lake Mead boulevards after multiple callers reported a baby had been ejected from a car in a crash.
Prescia, 23, had been driving a 2020 Hyundai Sonata north on Rampart with her 1-year-old son, Royce Jones, in a car seat in the back passenger seat when a white 2011 Nissan Sentra merged into the middle lane and Prescia hit the car, according to her arrest report.
Prescia told officers that she drank two 12-ounce White Claw hard seltzers around 4 p.m., the arrest report said. She had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech when speaking to officers, police said in the report.
Hubbard-Jones told police he was driving on Rampart at the time of the crash while on his way to do a custody exchange with Prescia.
He said that he had been on the phone with Prescia and that she said she was going to beat him home. He then asked her to slow down because their son was in the car, according to Prescia’ arrest report. He told police at the time that he was driving about 60 mph.
Police found that he had been driving a 2017 Mercedes-Benz GL450 and was next to the Hyundai while both cars were speeding. “The extreme speeds and driving behaviors were indicative of a speed contest between the two parents of the deceased juvenile,” Wednesday’s release said.
The baby’s death marks the 50th traffic-related fatality investigated by Metro this year. The case remains under investigation by Metro’s collision investigation section.
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Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.