State Sen. Melanie Scheible Fought to Shrink the Charge. A Judge Finished the Job.
Devin Heath was 17. He wanted to be a firefighter like his dad.
He never got the chance.
On March 18, 2024, Jesus Barraza was driving near Lewis Family Park in east Las Vegas, a spot where kids play and families walk.
He hit the gas instead of the brake. Court records show his speed climbed to 73 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone.
That's more than double the limit – on a residential street – near a park – at night.
Devin was crossing the street. Barraza never slowed down in time. Devin died at Sunrise Hospital days later.
A jury didn't buy the excuses. It took them only about an hour to find Barraza guilty of reckless driving resulting in death.
Here's what makes my blood boil.
At trial, defense attorney Melanie Scheible, who also happens to be a sitting Nevada state senator, stood up and tried to talk the jury into a lesser charge.
She argued Barraza wasn't driving “willfully.”
She told jurors, “If he could have seen Devin, he would have stopped.”
She pointed to the road's curve, the lighting, anything but the fact that her client chose to floor it near a playground.
I understand she was just “doing her job.”
But when that same lawyer sits in Carson City writing the laws the rest of us have to live under, Nevadans deserve to know how she thinks about accountability when a family is grieving a dead child.
And then came sentencing.
This week, District Judge Jennifer Schwartz had a chance to tell reckless drivers that speed kills and there are consequences.
Instead, she handed Barraza probation. No prison. A curfew. Restitution. A driving class. Community service. That's it.
Devin's dad, Raymond Heath, is a Clark County firefighter.
He sat through the trial with his son's picture hidden under his shirt. He told the judge he still walks into Devin's untouched room and calls out his name, even though nobody answers.
After the sentence came down, he had one word for it: “trash.”
He's right. It is trash.
Prosecutors asked for up to six years in prison. The judge said no.
She told Barraza, “This is your one shot.”
A shot Devin Heath never got.
Folks, this is what happens when our courts go soft on reckless, dangerous behavior.
A 17-year-old is dead. A family is shattered. And the man responsible gets to keep his freedom, keep his job, and go home.
I'm running for Assembly because Nevada families deserve leaders who take public safety seriously, on our roads and in our courtrooms.
We need lawmakers who back the victims, not the excuses.
We need judges to be held accountable when sentences don't fit the crime.
Devin Heath should be starting his senior year of high school right now.
Instead his dad is talking to an empty bedroom and the man who killed him is home free.
If that doesn't make your blood boil the way it did mine, I don't know what will.
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