Man charged with kidnapping after van stolen with boy inside
A convicted sex offender with a lengthy criminal record has been charged with stealing a van with a 4-year-old boy inside, then fleeing from Las Vegas police and wrecking the vehicle.
An arrest report for Darin Russell Stewart, 36, indicates that the child did not suffer any injuries but will be monitored for “potential future injuries” due to the crash, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
The incident started when a father parked his van, with his son inside, at the family home near the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Warm Springs Road, authorities said. The father was picking up his wife and daughter when a man approached and jumped in the front seat of the van.
The father told the man, “Don’t take my van. My son is in there,” and the man said he did not care and sped off, according to the arrest report.
The father got in his pickup and chased after his stolen van as police were called. The man in the van drove the vehicle up on a median and against traffic on Harmon Avenue as police arrived.
Police said they followed the van until it crashed into a Southwest Gas meter in the 3300 block of Zephyr Court, near South Pecos Road and Tropicana Avenue. The vehicle was badly damaged. The boy was retrieved from the van.
Police searched the area, found Stewart and arrested him. They said they found a glass smoking pipe with methamphetamine at the scene.
Inside the van police found a bag that did not belong to the owner of the vehicle, and it contained checks written to a woman and worth nearly $4,000.
“Along with those two checks, four blank papers that were the same as the checks were found next to them,” police wrote, adding that they also recovered a fraudulent $100 bill at the scene.
Stewart is now facing multiple felonies. They include first-degree kidnapping, grand larceny of an auto, child abuse/neglect and possession of drugs. Las Vegas Justice Court records show that prosecutors declined to file several other charges against Stewart, including failure to register as a sex offender.
The arrest report for Stewart identifies him as a convicted sex offender. Justice Court records show at least nine prior criminal cases filed against him since 2015.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
