LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The mother and aunt of two toddlers killed in a senseless car crash were sentenced to jail and prison time, respectively, Thursday in a dramatic court hearing that left an entire family in tears.
The toddlers, two-and three-year-old sisters, died after a car crash in December 2022 outside multiple residential communities on Scott Robinson Boulevard and Casa Verde Drive, near the Lone Mountain Road and Clayton Street intersection in North Las Vegas. The younger sister was decapitated and died on the scene and the elder died at University Medical Center.
In court Tuesday, the mother of the children – Raenysha Washington – was sentenced to 364 days in Clark County Detention Center as a precursor to five years probation on a considerably longer suspended prison sentence for felony child abuse or neglect.
Court records detail how Washington, 25, let her children into a van with no car seats. In fact, at Thursday’s hearing, Clark County District Court Judge Erika Mendoza expressed concern that Washington had sold the children’s car seats ten days before the crash.
“The problem is I’m not sure that all of these mistakes are things that could happen to a responsible parent,” Mendoza said when she sentenced Washington.
Washington had asked to turn herself in Monday so she could spend the weekend with her young son – who was born after the toddlers died. Mendoza insisted Washington’s jail sentence start immediately – at the end of Thursday’s hearing – and Washington, who is pregnant with another child that she will now most likely deliver in CCDC custody, was taken into custody and escorted out of the courtroom amidst her heaving sobs.
The toddlers’ aunt, Kaleah Manning, 27, was drunk and driving the van, which she told police had mechanical issues when it crashed. Mendoza sentenced Manning to three-to-ten years in state prison for the two deaths while driving under the influence.
Both women must pay a victims’ fund of $10,000 that helped pay for the children’s funerals in addition to a mandatory $2,000 fine under the relevant criminal statute.
Manning and Washington were emotional throughout the hearing, as was their mother, who spoke at the hearing begging Mendoza to show leniency to her daughters. Edwina Manning’s impassioned plea ended in heartwrenching, deep sobs and a family member had to lead her out of the courtroom and into the hallway where her crying turned into wailing.
To that end, Mendoza acknowledged that both women avoided considerably harsher sentences because the victims were their own family members and not people in a separate vehicle.
“There wouldn’t be much to talk about and you’d be going to prison for a really, really long time,” Mendoza said. “But because they’re your family I certainly understand that the mental trauma you all are experiencing eclipses any punishment I could give you.”
