Man arrested in hit-and-run that killed Las Vegas grandmother

Las Vegas police have arrested a man accused of killing a 66-year-old woman in a hit-and-run crash on May 5.

Lemar Gant, 42, was arrested Tuesday on charges of failing to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death and failing to exercise due care to a pedestrian, jail records show. He is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $100,000 bail.

Gant was allegedly driving a lifted dark-gray GMC crew cab truck hauling a trailer with two ATVs when he hit Mary Gelino and drove over her body. He fled the scene of the crash as witnesses tried to render aid, police said.

The Metropolitan Police Department said received an anonymous call on May 6 reporting that the truck was seen parked the night before at the Desert Paradise Mobile Home Park, about 3 miles north of the crash at North Nellis Boulevard and East Lake Mead Parkway. Security camera footage from the park showed the driver, later identified as Gant, loading and unloading off-road vehicles from the trailer and talking with residents for about 45 minutes.

Officers on May 7 found found the truck abandoned on Hunters Run Drive in North Las Vegas, about 7 miles northwest of the crash site, according to police documents. They found “several small areas of spatter consistent with biological material,” which they believe hit the truck as it drove over Gelino.

Police spoke with the owner of the truck on May 11, and he told them that he was loaning the truck to Gant for $1,400 a month while his construction business was slow.

A records search for Gant showed that he’d been arrested multiple times and had known gang affiliations, police said. Court records show Gant’s criminal history in Las Vegas includes arrests on charges of drug possession, battery, attempted murder, vehicle theft, robbery and kidnapping.

An officer from the detention center’s gangs and special investigation department quickly identified Gant from the mobile home park surveillance footage.

“I knew of Gant from previous encounters inside the jail when we were investigating gang related incidents,” the officer wrote. “I recalled several contacts with Gant dating back to 2010.”

‘Fierce defender’

On the night of she was killed, Gelino was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk on the way to her apartment, where her family was holding a 13th birthday party for her granddaughter.

She was remembered by her daughter, Tiffany Angelino, as a a quirky woman who — despite suffering from osteoarthritis in her knees — did not let anything slow her down. She got out of the house nearly every day, Angelino said.

“A fierce defender and true sympathizer for the human condition, she was known for throwing herself in harm’s way to protect those she loved,” Angelino wrote of her mother in a Facebook message. “I wish in her final moments that someone was there to protect her.”

Angelino said the arrest is a step in the right direction for her family to get closure. She said the family is planning on attending a hearing for Gant, which is scheduled for June 2.

“It will be hard, but providing full representation of how her family has been impacted is very important,” Angelino wrote, adding that her mother’s death has made her more aware of pedestrian safety in Las Vegas.

“Since the incident I have become more aware of how big a risk our city’s residents and especially pedestrians take with the careless drivers on our streets,” she wrote. “Las Vegas drivers need to stop killing pedestrians.”

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.