Andrea Roman intentionally ran over Bryan Hicks outside an Olive Garden, prosecutors say, while the defense argues the fatal collision was an accident.

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A North Las Vegas judge has ordered a murder case to move forward after prosecutors said a woman deliberately drove her new SUV over her longtime partner in an Olive Garden parking lot on Oct. 18, 2025, killing him as the couple’s 4-year-old child sat in the back seat.

At the center of the case is a sharp dispute over intent. Prosecutors say 40-year-old Andrea Roman knew her Mitsubishi Outlander was in drive and used it as a deadly weapon against Bryan Hicks, 40, the father of her eight children. Her defense lawyer says Roman was unfamiliar with the SUV, believed she had shifted into reverse and did not mean to hit Hicks. After a preliminary hearing on Feb. 24, a judge found enough evidence to send the case on for trial, keeping a murder charge and deadly weapon allegation in place.

Police say the events that ended in Hicks’ death began during a Saturday morning drive in North Las Vegas. Roman told officers that she and Hicks had been together for about 20 years and had spent part of the day driving around after she bought the red Mitsubishi Outlander less than a day earlier. According to police, the pair had been out for coffee and also stopped at a pawn shop before tensions rose. Roman later told investigators Hicks, who she said had back pain that day, asked to get out of the vehicle. She pulled into the Olive Garden parking lot in the 1200 block of East Craig Road, near North Bruce Street. There, by her account, Hicks slammed the SUV door, kicked the vehicle and fought with her near the hood. Prosecutors said the argument had started inside the SUV and spilled into the lot. At the later hearing, Deputy District Attorney Kassandra Acosta said dash-cam video from a witness showed Roman inching the SUV forward three times before turning the wheel toward Hicks and accelerating. “She knows the difference between reverse and drive,” Acosta said in court.

Investigators built the case around witness accounts, Roman’s own statements and video gathered at the scene. An arrest report said bystander dash-cam footage showed Hicks and Roman physically fighting in front of the Outlander. Police said the video then showed the SUV lurching forward three times and stopping. After the third jolt, Hicks picked up a pair of glasses from the ground and threw them in front of the SUV before turning away and walking toward the restaurant. Police said Roman then steered toward him, struck him from behind and pushed him forward onto his back. The vehicle slowed, but kept moving until Hicks was pinned underneath. Officers arriving at the scene found his neck wedged under the front driver’s-side tire, according to the arrest report. Roman told police she was not used to the SUV’s gear selector and thought she had placed the vehicle in reverse. She also said she turned the wheels toward Hicks only to scare him. Witnesses at the restaurant told police they believed the strike was intentional. One bystander pulled a concealed firearm and ordered Roman to stop when police say she appeared ready to leave. An off-duty detective was also among the people who saw parts of the aftermath.

The medical evidence added weight to the prosecution’s version. Court reporting from the preliminary hearing said a medical examiner testified Hicks died of traumatic asphyxia after his head and neck were pinned under a front tire. That detail became a key point because it described not just an impact, but pressure continuing after Hicks went down. Prosecutors argued that sequence matched the witness video and undercut the defense claim of a simple pedal mistake. The criminal complaint accuses Roman of “willful, deliberate and premeditated” murder, language that signals the state’s view that this was not reckless driving but an intentional killing. Roman, however, has insisted the fatal contact was accidental. Her attorney, David Lopez-Negrete, told the court that Roman had owned the Outlander for only hours and that officers at the scene themselves had trouble dealing with the vehicle’s unfamiliar gear system. He argued that the lack of a traditional gearshift mattered and said the evidence supported “a very viable argument” that the strike was accidental. That conflict is likely to remain the heart of the case when jurors hear it.

The setting and family history make the case especially stark. Roman and Hicks were not strangers in a sudden parking-lot dispute. Police said they had a two-decade relationship and eight children together, ranging in age from 4 to 22. Roman reportedly referred to Hicks as her husband, though they were not legally married. Investigators said the couple’s youngest child, a 4-year-old daughter, was strapped into the back seat when Hicks was hit. Roman told police that Hicks had never been physically violent with her during their 20 years together until the confrontation that day. That statement may become important if the defense tries to give jurors a fuller picture of the argument that unfolded outside the SUV. Still, no public account suggests Hicks had a weapon, and the known evidence so far centers on the car, the video and the movements seen in the parking lot. The location, an Olive Garden just off East Craig Road, was busy enough that several lunch patrons witnessed parts of the encounter, giving police multiple civilian statements soon after Hicks was found unresponsive beside the red SUV.

The case has now entered a more formal court phase. Roman was initially booked on an open murder charge with a deadly weapon enhancement, a common Nevada approach when prosecutors leave room for a later theory of first- or second-degree murder. At the preliminary hearing on Tue., Feb. 24, 2026, a North Las Vegas judge found the state had met the low burden required to bind the case over for further proceedings. Reporting from the courtroom said the judge described the evidence threshold in that setting as slight or marginal, but still enough for a jury to decide what happened. Roman was scheduled to return to court on Thu., Feb. 26, 2026, for arraignment in district court. The next major steps are expected to include a formal plea, pretrial motions over video and witness testimony, and eventual trial scheduling. A jury would then decide whether prosecutors proved Roman acted intentionally, whether any lesser offense fits the evidence better, or whether the defense can persuade jurors the fatal act was a tragic mistake involving a newly purchased vehicle.

Even before a trial, the details described in court have given the case unusual force. Prosecutors focused on small movements: the three jolts forward, the turn of the steering wheel, the pause after impact and the tire resting on Hicks. The defense focused just as tightly on other details: the newness of the SUV, the gear design and Roman’s frantic behavior after the crash. Court observers reported Roman became emotional during the preliminary hearing, rocking back and forth and crying as evidence was presented. Those scenes did not decide the legal issue, but they added to the tension around a case already marked by family ties, public witnesses and a child’s presence. For the people who saw it in the parking lot, it was not an abstract court file. It was a daytime fight outside a restaurant that ended with one parent dead, the other in custody and eight children left at the center of a homicide case that now moves toward trial.

Roman remains charged, and the central question is unchanged: whether she mistakenly hit Hicks while trying to reverse or knowingly drove into him. The next milestone identified in court reporting was her Feb. 26, 2026 arraignment as the case continued through the Nevada court system.

Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.