A 42-year-old woman pleaded guilty on Thursday to a voluntary manslaughter charge for shooting a man driving a car she was riding in on Interstate 15.
Bernice Bohler was accused of shooting and killing 43-year-old Frank Williams as Williams was driving Bohler, two other men and another woman on I-15 in the early hours of June 2, court records show. The Nevada Highway Patrol was called to the scene of a crash at about 3:30 a.m. on the I-15 North HOV off-ramp to U.S. Highway 95.
Police found Williams, who had been shot in the head, inside a 2008 Mercedes Benz that had struck a barrier. Investigators determined that Bohler and three other people had fled from the scene after the car crashed. Bohler was arrested days later after turning herself in, according to court documents.
She pleaded guilty on Thursday to a charge of voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon, court records show.
Witnesses told police that two women and two men were seen leaving the scene of the crash.
Police found one of the men, who told investigators that he and his cousin ran into Williams, a relative of his son’s mother, at a bar hours before the crash. Williams was with Bohler and another woman, the man told police.
The group then went to another bar, and Williams planned to drive them all home around 3 a.m. Bohler got in the front seat of the car and began arguing with Williams as he was driving, the man told police.
“Almost immediately, (Bohler) and Williams began arguing, seemingly over Williams’ earlier behavior,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Williams had rushed the two women into leaving the bar after it had closed, according to the document. While arguing in the car, Williams cursed at Bohler, and she pulled out a handgun and started shooting at Williams, the man told investigators.
The man and his cousin ran from the scene of the crash but were later approached by police in the area.
A day after the crash, the other woman in the vehicle also spoke to police. She said she had fallen asleep in the backseat of the car and woke up to loud noises and the car crashing. She and Bohler ran from the scene and called a rideshare to drop Bohler off at her home and then take the woman to the hospital for minor injuries, according to court documents.
According to a court document written by Bohler’s attorney, Yi Lin Zheng, Bohler surrendered to Las Vegas police on June 9. Zheng wrote in the document that Bohler believed Williams was threatening her life while he was driving the vehicle.
A sentencing hearing in front of District Judge Michelle Leavitt is scheduled for Feb. 5.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-382-0240.
