LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The man accused in a suspected DUI crash that critically injured a mother and her child, and killed the mother's unborn baby, is set to return to court before the end of the month.
Anyssa Bohanan has the details of what happened in court:
Maximilliano Chavez appeared in court Tuesday morning. During the proceedings, Chavez was appointed a public defender. Channel 13 also learned that his bail has been posted, and he is waiting to be released on electronic monitoring.
According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Chavez ran a red light on Saturday at the intersection of Blue Diamond Road and South Las Vegas Boulevard, crashing into multiple vehicles and killing a pregnant woman's baby. The woman and another child inside the car were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
Watch the full police briefing here:
District Attorney Steve Wolfson spoke to members of the media after court adjourned.
He said as of now, Chavez is looking at facing three charges of felony DUI and three charges of felony reckless driving.
The DA also told media his office is looking to pursue a charge of felony DUI causing death.
Watch the DA's full briefing with media here:
Wolfson said according to the police report, the mother an emergency C-section was performed on the mother because she had sustained serious injury to her abdomen at 29 weeks pregnant and no fetal heartbeat could be detected.
It was then that a fetal heartbeat was found, and doctors performed life-saving measures for roughly 20 minutes before the unborn baby was pronounced deceased, according to the report Wolfson cited.
Wolfson also confirmed that Chavez has a history of speeding and has a previous misdemeanor DUI conviction out of Nye County.
Wolfson closed out the briefing with another call to valley drivers to slow down.
"Talk to your family and relatives and friends, and tell them to slow down," he said. "If people did, then lives would be saved."
He also spoke to the need for the Nevada legislature to pass harsher DUI penalties.
"I don't believe the DUI penalties in Nevada are severe enough....we achieved a couple of things this legislative session...but the legislature didn't pass a law to increase the penalties in felony DUI cases such as this," he said.
Chavez is set to return to court on Sept. 22 at 9:30 a.m.