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North Las Vegas, Nev. • A judge set bail at $320,000 on Monday for an 18-year-old mother from Utah accused of trying to flee after hitting eight pedestrians outside a North Las Vegas church.
Nyakueth D. Tear, 18, appeared by videoconference from the Las Vegas City Jail. North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Natalie Tyrrell told her that prosecutors have up to a week to file charges.
Tear spoke only to say she understood English. The judge said she was being held on eight counts of attempting to leave the scene of an accident.
Tear was jailed shortly after the late Thursday crash outside Iglesia de Cristo church on Losee Road near Lake Mead Boulevard.
The most seriously injured person, Lorenzo Alavez, 54, remained hospitalized in critical condition. Parishioners prayed Sunday for his recovery and took up a collection to fund his medical treatment, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
An Alavez relative who attended Tear's court proceeding declined comment outside the courthouse.
Four of Alavez's relatives and a 35-year-pregnant churchgoer were among those injured in the crash about 11 p.m. Thursday. Seven were treated at hospitals and released.
Witnesses told police the driver initially got out of the vehicle then tried to drive away on the dark industrial street lined by auto repair shops and block walls south of Lake Mead Boulevard.
Police said Tear did not have a driver's license or insurance, and the white 2000 Mitsubishi Galant was registered to someone else. It was not reported stolen.
Tear was captured after crashing the car into a piece of construction equipment and running toward Interstate 15 in a work zone at the end of the dead-end street.
Police said Monday that a search for Tear's 1-year-old son ended after Tear's mother in West Jordan, Utah, reported the child was with her.
North Las Vegas police Sgt. Tim Bedwell said investigators found no evidence that the child was ever in the Mitsubishi that Tear told investigators she'd been sleeping in for about a week before the crash. She initially told police she left the boy with his father in Las Vegas.