After pedestrian dies, man says he fell asleep behind the wheel, police say

Asked what happened, Devon Lorenzo Cordova told police he fell asleep behind the wheel after a night out with friends.

It was just before 5:30 a.m. April 2 when Cordova’s white Ford F-150 pickup truck veered off Sunset Road in Henderson and up on to the sidewalk, killing a man and heavily damaging a bus stop, according to police.

But instead of stopping his pickup truck and getting out to help the man, Cordova, 48, kept driving, police said. By the time he parked it at a nearby Black Bear Diner, his truck had two flat tires, was missing its front grill, had shrubs embedded in the running boards and had pieces of the bus stop on its windshield, according to a Henderson Police Department arrest report.

The victim was identified last week by the Clark County coroner’s office as Angel Rodriguez-Perez, 55.

Cordova, who posted a $29,000 bond April 3 and appeared to have been released from custody, faced multiple charges including felony counts of reckless driving causing death and duty to stop at a crash site, as well as several other misdemeanor charges, according to Henderson Justice Court records.

A Henderson Police Department arrest report released April 3 provided new details about the wreck. The report alleges the following:

A witness walked out of a gas station on East Sunset Road when an unidentified pedestrian came over and asked him to call 911. The pedestrian pointed over to a bus stop near Annie Oakley Drive.

There on the ground was an older man. He looked dead. The witness would tell police that a white Ford pickup truck had hit the bus stop and that the truck had kept going east on Sunset Road toward Green Valley Parkway.

Officers arrived at the scene to find the lifeless body of Rodriguez-Perez with what “appeared to be significant trauma to his lower extremities and his head.”

The bus stop and landscaping were heavily damaged. A fire hydrant had been dislodged.

Another officer found the white pickup truck suspected of being involved in the parking of the Black Bear Diner on Green Valley Parkway. A Black Bear employee told the officer he had seen the truck drive into the parking lot and park.

The truck had “significant front end damage,” the report stated.

Officers watched surveillance video from a gas station that showed the crash. They also watched video from the diner that showed a man — he matched the description of the man seen parking his damaged truck by the diner employee — texting on his phone and walking away from the restaurant.

The gas station video showed the white pickup truck veer off Sunset Road and up on to the sidewalk, where it struck a large metal bus stop enclosure before hitting a fire hydrant and downing a street sign before getting back on the road and driving east, police said.

Police determined who the registered owner was and went to an address. They spoke to Cordova’s dad, who said he was on the registration because he was on the loan for the vehicle. He said the vehicle belongs to his son Devon, who lived across the street.

Devon Cordova had gone to a concert at Allegiant Stadium the night before — the Red Hot Chili Peppers played at Allegiant on April 1 — and then had gone to work at Resorts World for the graveyard shift, his father told police, according to the report.

As for Cordova, whom police spoke to after they crossed the street to his home, he said he had been out with friends and that while driving home he had fallen asleep.

“Devon stated he fell asleep while driving east on Sunset Road where he struck a curb popping his tires,” the report said.

Police arrested Cordova and booked him in at the Henderson Detention Center. Officers also seized his iPhone and had his truck towed to the Henderson Police Department. They were awaiting search warrants to investigate both, the arrest report said.

Cordova’s next court date has been set for April 27, court records show.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.