Prosecutors charging man with fatal DUI for unborn child's death

Noble Brigham, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sep 9, 2025

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LAS VEGAS — Prosecutors have filed a DUI resulting in death charge against a man accused of driving drunk and killing an unborn child.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after a Tuesday hearing for Maximiliano Chavez, 27, that this case may be the first of its kind for his office.

“There are some states that speak to whether or not a prosecutor can charge a DUI death of an unborn child,” said the district attorney. “My understanding is Nevada law is silent on that.”

The Metropolitan Police Department has said Chavez caused a four-vehicle crash Saturday afternoon at West Blue Diamond Road and Las Vegas Boulevard South. Besides the child who died, a 9-year-old and the pregnant mother also suffered life-threatening injuries.

Police said Chavez ran a red light. Wolfson said Chavez was speeding and has prior convictions for speeding and DUI.

The district attorney said Chavez’s blood alcohol concentration was .10 in one sample and that he believed it was .08 in another sample. The legal limit is .08.

During the short hearing, Las Vegas Pro tem Justice of the Peace Holly Stoberski informed Chavez that he is being charged with at least six counts, including DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm and DUI resulting in death.

Chavez confirmed that he understood.

Stoberski said Chavez’s $250,000 bail had already been posted and that he was awaiting release on electronic monitoring.

The judge also appointed the public defender’s office to represent Chavez, whose preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 22.

The child has been named “Baby Boy Dauz,” Wolfson said. His mother, about 29 weeks pregnant, “sustained substantial injuries to her abdomen,” he told reporters. There was no fetal heartbeat detected, he said, and an emergency cesarean section was performed.

After delivery, the baby had a heartbeat and a doctor tried for about 20 minutes to save his life before pronouncing him dead, Wolfson said.

“The fact that the child was breathing and they tried to resuscitate him for 20 minutes, that says something,” said the district attorney.

To prove the child died from injuries suffered in the crash, he said, prosecutors will likely need to have a doctor testify that “but for this accident, the child would have survived.”

State law says that “a person who willfully kills an unborn quick child” by injuring the mother is guilty of manslaughter.

But Wolfson said the statute did not seem applicable to Chavez’s case because it mandates that the offender know or have reason to believe the victim is pregnant.

“I’m angry,” the district attorney said. “This should not have happened. I’m challenging this community, I’m challenging the people in the Las Vegas valley to slow down. What’s the rush every single day?”

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