Former suspect in FBI agent’s murder among 2 dead in Nye County crash
By Katelyn Newberg
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Mar 8, 2026

Carlos Gurri visits the grave of FBI Special Agent John Bailey at Palm
Eastern Mortuary on July 25, 2024, in Las Vegas. Gurri had recently been
released after spending more than 30 years in custody for being
convicted as the getaway driver in a robbery that led to Bailey’s death
in 1990.
Carlos Gurri, who claimed he was wrongfully
imprisoned for decades in connection with the murder of an FBI agent,
died Saturday evening in a head-on collision just south of Pahrump.
The crash happened when Gurri, 62, tried
passing a vehicle while driving north on state Route 160, south of Manse
Road in Pahrump, the Nevada Highway Patrol said in a news release on
Tuesday.
Gurri struck a southbound vehicle that was
being driven by 21-year-old Rhiannon Folsom of Pahrump. Both Gurri and
Folsom died at the scene.
Officials have identified Gurri as Carlos
Gurry-Rubio, but he was named Carlos Gurri Rubio on his birth
certificate, according to previous reporting by the Las Vegas
Review-Journal.
Gurri was imprisoned
in connection with the 1990 killing of FBI Special Agent John Bailey.
He was accused of being the getaway driver in the robbery, during which
his roommate, Jose Echavarria, shot and killed Bailey.
Attorneys have claimed prosecutors had
insufficient evidence to place Gurri at the scene of the crime, and
Gurri had repeatedly denied his involvement.
His conviction was overturned in 2018 because of alleged judicial misconduct in the case, and prosecutors dropped the charges
against him in 2023, shortly before he was set to stand trial again. He
was released from custody in June 2024, after spending nearly 33 years
behind bars.
Gurri filed a lawsuit in May
that alleged prosecutors intentionally withheld information about the
judge in his trial and continued the “malicious prosecution” after his
conviction was overturned. He also was pursuing a lawsuit that asked a
judge to grant him a certificate of innocence.
Attorney Alanna Bondy, one of the lawyers representing Gurri, confirmed Tuesday that he was involved in the Nye County crash.
“We’re looking into next steps with his cases, but otherwise the information we have is what NHP has reported,” Bondy said.
The Highway Patrol said troopers responded to
the crash at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Investigators determined that
Gurri was driving a 2006 Nissan Xterra when he tried passing a 2023
Chevrolet Camaro Coupe at a “high rate of speed” by veering into the
southbound lane. The Nissan then struck the 2021 Chevrolet Spark
Hatchback that Folsom was driving.
The crash caused the Nissan to turn, also
hitting the front of the Camaro. The driver of the Camaro had minor
injuries, the Highway Patrol said.
‘Absolutely Unfathomable’
Folsom had left home shortly before the crash
and was driving to meet up with friends for the night, her mother,
Danielle Smith, told the Review-Journal on Tuesday. She had turned 21
four days earlier.
“There’s nothing that I can think of that’s
more devastating than this,” Smith said in a phone interview. “This is a
loss that’s absolutely unfathomable.”
Folsom had lived with Smith in Pahrump for
nearly 12 years. She spent the majority of that time in Nevada, but she
also grew up in Florida with her father, Smith said. She had recently
graduated from the College of Southern Nevada with a certificate in
audio engineering and dreamed of moving out of the small town to become a
music producer.
Smith said Folsom was a good driver, so she
never worried about the lengthy drive to Las Vegas. State Route 160,
which turns into a rural, two-lane road in sections, was a familiar
drive for Folsom, who frequently traveled into the valley for school or
to visit friends.
Her mother said Folsom had big dreams that
varied between “going everywhere” to moving to the Pacific Northwest to
renting a place alone in Las Vegas.
Smith said she shared a deep love of music
with Folsom, and the two bonded over artists like Fleetwood Mac, the
Beatles and Mitski. Folsom was a self-taught guitar player who was
deeply focused on learning music but “barely had a chance to go that far
with it,” Smith said.
Above all, Folsom was “enthusiastic about life,” her mother said.
“She was one of the most vibrant people I had ever known,” Smith said.
Wrongful conviction lawsuit
Gurri previously told the Review-Journal that
he fled to the United States as a political refugee from Cuba in 1987.
He grew up with 11 siblings in Havana, where he worked as a fisherman
and mechanic. He reached Florida by paddling with swim flippers on an
inner tube before immigration officials sent him to Las Vegas.
He found work at a Hilton hotel, got a studio
apartment with help from Catholic Charities and allowed Echavarria to
room with him. Echavarria was another Cuban immigrant and worked as a
dealer at the El Cortez. Gurri previously said he had no idea his
roommate was planning a robbery.
Echavarria, who is awaiting a new trial set
for January, had never implicated Gurri in the crime. Several witnesses
reported seeing someone outside the bank but could not positively
identify Gurri during the trial, the Review-Journal previously reported.
One woman only identified Gurri to the police after she saw a photo of
him on the news, according to court transcripts.
Prosecutors previously have pointed to evidence that tied Gurri to the gun and stolen motorcycle Echavarria used in the robbery.
Gurri was pursuing a certificate of
innocence, which could have allowed him to receive up to $100,000 for
each year he spent imprisoned on a wrongful conviction. The certificate
would have only required acknowledgment that he was wrongfully
convicted, not that there was misconduct by officials.
He had filed a lawsuit against several
government agencies and police officers involved in his initial
conviction. He accused the Clark County district attorney’s office of
prosecutorial misconduct, but a federal judge recently dismissed the
agency from the lawsuit, ruling that Gurri had to sue the agency in
control of the office, which is the Clark County government.
“The Clark County District Attorney’s Office
has long maintained an institutional policy and practice of prioritizing
convictions over truth and justice, even in the face of compelling
evidence casting doubt on a defendant’s guilt,” attorneys wrote in the
lawsuit.
District Attorney Steve Wolfson did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Gurri was released from custody in 2024 and moved in with a friend in North Las Vegas. His immigration case was in flux
after he was granted “withholding of removal status,” meaning he could
have been deported to Cuba if the political climate or relations between
the country and the U.S. improved.
In past interviews with the Review-Journal,
Gurri focused on the years that he spent in prison for a crime he said
he didn’t commit. He said officials “need to answer” for those decades.
“They took all those years from me,” Gurri told the Review-Journal in May. “There’s no way I can get all that back.”