Bill would close loophole for DUI offenders

The mother of a woman killed in a wrong-way head-on collision with a drunken driver is hoping to gain support for a bill that would close a loophole that allows those convicted from being placed in minimum security after they are sentenced.

Airman 1st Class Fallon Montanucci was killed and her sister Avalon critically injured on April 23, 2022, in the collision on Highway 395 north of Johnson Lane.

Driver Matthew Joseph Premo admitted to charges and was sentenced to 16-40 years in prison in October, which he is currently serving at Carlin Conservation Camp in Elko.

Gardnerville resident Paula Montanucci said Sen. Robin Titus and Assemblyman Ken Gray are among the sponsors of Senate Bill 284.

Current law requires offenders be segregated from violent offenders and assigned to a minimum security facility.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

Montanucci is asking that supporters email or call Chairwoman Melanie Scheible’s office asking that the bill be heard.

Her email is Melanie.Scheible@sen.state.nv.us and office phone number is 775-684-1421.

The bill was assigned to the committee on March 16. No hearing has been scheduled.

Fallon Montanucci was a former Sheriff’s Explorer who was home on leave from her station at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where she guarded Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. She was buried at Eastside Memorial in Minden with a full military honor guard.

In an interview with The Record-Courier conducted Dec. 28, 2022, with Paula and Eddie Montanucci the couple said they were seeking justice for Fallon.

“I want justice for my daughter, and we haven’t seen it yet,” she said. “I cannot rest. If it means taking it further, I will take it as far as it needs to go because I am that kind of mother, and I will make it my life’s mission.”

Both Premo and Jerrad Daniel Dominquez, who was sentenced to 6-20 years for the DUI collision that killed Carson City resident Hugo Parris Solis are in conservation camps, according to the state.

Joan Kathryn Wenger, who was sentenced to 10 years to life for being drunk when she rammed the back of a vehicle stopped at Highway 395 and Johnson Lane in 2019, is serving her sentence at Casa Grande Transitional Living.

According to a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, offenders serving sentences for felony driving under the influence are generally put in one of the camps, where most work on Nevada Division of Forestry hand crews during fires.