Inset: Amber Brown. Background: The Las Vegas crosswalk that Amber Brown was walking in when Angel Franco Merida allegedly blew through a red light and slammed into her (KLAS/YouTube).
A Nevada mother says she found out about her daughter“s hit-and-run death after she looked at her phone location data and “it showed her at the coroner’s office.” Now, she’s seeking justice against the driver after he managed to evade prosecution following an ICE deportation to Guatemala, according to the local district attorney.
“I totally broke down,” Cheri Brown, mother of victim Amber Brown, told Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS this week. “It showed her at the coroner’s office.”
Amber Brown, 33, was crossing Rancho Drive at Decatur Boulevard in a marked crosswalk on June 19, 2025, when Angel Franco Merida, 37, blew through a red light and slammed into her, according to police. Hours went by before her mother found out what happened, KLAS reports.
“When she didn’t come home, I started panicking,” Cheri Brown said.
Franco Merida fled the scene but was later arrested and charged with reckless driving resulting in death, according to police. He appeared in Las Vegas Justice Court and was granted a $50,000 bond, which he reportedly posted two days after the alleged hit-and-run.
ICE agents took him into custody shortly after he left jail, KLAS reports.
“My understanding is that he was taken by ICE,” Franco Merida’s attorney told a judge on June 24, five days after his arrest. A U.S. immigration judge granted him a voluntary departure in July 2025 and he failed to appear at the next hearing he had scheduled, according to court records obtained by KLAS.
A warrant was issued for Franco Merida’s arrest, but authorities have been unable to take him in because ICE deported the man to Guatemala, prosecutors say. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told KLAS that ICE never notified his office or told him about the deportation.
“They snatched him and took him right under our noses before we even knew it,” Wolfson said this week. “As far as I’m concerned, the family was cheated. They were cheated in the state court system where he’s being prosecuted.”
KLAS reports that if he was still in Nevada, Franco Merida would have faced a potential prison sentence of one to six years behind bars for Amber Brown’s death. Records show that the case was effectively closed in September after a judge exonerated his bond.
“I think it’s horrible,” Cheri Brown blasted. “I think that they should bring him back. He should serve justice. He killed my daughter. Just because he is from another country — it shouldn’t be a free ticket to just flee the country.”
ICE did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment on Thursday.
