Las Vegas man killed in crash had ‘heart of gold,’ sister says

With frigid winter nights imminent, Jacob Stanley was plotting his way out of the unforgiving Las Vegas streets after he became homeless this year.

Stanley’s sister, Roxanne Harrell, said she spoke to him just before he died. He had had a hopeful tone, mentioning drug rehab and the prospect of finding a home and a better life.

“We were just trying to figure things out,” Harrell said in a phone interview from Virginia, their home state.

Stanley told his sister that his phone needed a charge and that he would call back, ending their talk like he always did: “I love you.”

Minutes later, early on Nov. 20, Stanley stepped onto Sahara Avenue, near Commerce Center Drive, and was struck by a car and killed.

He was 36.

Court appearance

The Metropolitan Police Department said that Stanley was outside of a crosswalk shortly before 1 a.m. when a car driven by Juan Vazquez hit him.

Vazquez, who remained at the scene, was arrested on a charge of DUI causing death after he declined a field sobriety test and told officers he had smoked pot earlier in the day, not expounding on a time frame of the drug consumption.

The results of blood samples police took from Vazquez have not been made public.

On Thursday morning, Vazquez, 31, appeared in court, where Clark County prosecutors asked Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum to delay a preliminary hearing until January because a witness, who told police she was driving next to Vazquez and saw him accelerate past her before the crash, was “out of town.”

Defense attorney Kelsey Bernstein, who questioned the timing of the witness’ absence, said that Vazquez “did the right thing” by calling 911, directing traffic around the crash scene and cooperating with police, even making “statements against his best interest.”

She said Vazquez declined the field sobriety test because he was approached while sitting in an ambulance “getting glass shards removed from his eyeballs.”

Baucum acknowledged the attorney’s “good arguments” and slashed bail in half, setting it at $50,000. If Vazquez posts bond, he will be held under high-monitoring house arrest.

He is next due in court on Jan. 12.

“There is significantly more than meets the eye to this case,” Bernstein wrote in an email to the Review-Journal on Thursday. “I believe there are valid defenses to these charges, and the State and I will work to ensure that a fair and just outcome is reached that appropriately reflects the legal and evidentiary problems in the case.”

Vazquez, who donned blue jail garb in court, told Baucum he was a 20-year Las Vegas resident who worked delivering food. He has three children and a fourth “on the way.”

Harrell is upset that bail was set in the first place.

“I don’t understand how this man might have a chance to bond out, sit at home with his children and his loved ones, and just go on about his daily life when my brother can’t do that. I don’t understand that at all,” she said before Thursday’s hearing.

Reacting to the hearing, she added, “It’s sounds harsh, but I feel like my brother was just murdered for the second time. I have no words for it.”

Family decimated

Stanley’s death was the latest in a string of tragedies for Harrell: Their father died from cancer four years ago; their mother died in her sleep a year ago; now, she had also lost her “baby brother.”

“That’s what makes this tragedy horrific for me,” Harrell said, explaining that the four were a tightknit family unit — a “wolf pack.”

“Jake was the last to go,” she said. “So now my little pack is kind of empty.”

Stanley was born in Dumfries, Virginia. He and Harrell maintained a close bond after their older sister moved out of their home, sharing hobbies and friend groups, and later in life, keeping in constant touch with each other. He and his parents moved to Arizona seven years ago, and he relocated with his mother to Las Vegas in 2018.

Harrell fondly remembers their weekend family fishing trips, an activity he cherished.

Stanley was a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Orlando Magic, often wearing the jersey of his favorite basketball player, Shaquille O’Neal.

“He always was the center of attention,” Harrell said. “He could make friends with anybody — a complete stranger — and they would never forget him.”

Music was important to his family, and Stanley was known to contort his taste depending on who he was with: listening to 1970s tunes with his father, and heavy metal, country or hip-hop with various friend groups.

And despite his struggles, he never lost his aura of forgiveness, compassion and kindness, always willing to give away his last cigarette or help anyone in need — a “heart of gold,” Harrell said.

The death of their mother, which left him to fend for himself for the first time, sent him into a downward spiral, Harrell said.

“I worried every day about him, where he was going to sleep, what he was doing,” she said.

Still, the thought of losing him, especially in a crash, “never” crossed her mind.

The thought of people judging her brother gives her anguish.

“He was who he was,” she said, adding that his death has consumed her with grief, anxiety and insomnia.

She last saw her brother three years ago in Virginia, when he got to meet his niece in person. Harrell’s younger son did not get a chance to meet his uncle.

Harrell and her family celebrated what would have been Stanley’s 37 birthday from her home in Roanoke, Virginia, in late November, she said. They released balloons in his honor.

Recently, someone gifted her flat, circular ornaments with pictures of the siblings together that adorn her Christmas tree.

“This is all I have left of him,” she wrote in a text message Wednesday.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.