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Inset: Andrea Roman (North Las Vegas Police Department). Background: The Olive Garden in North Las Vegas where Andrea Roman allegedly ran over her boyfriend’s head and killed him (Google Maps).
A woman from Nevada stands accused of deliberately running over her boyfriend, who is also the father of her eight children, with her new SUV, resulting in his death. The incident occurred in an Olive Garden parking lot following a heated argument between the couple. Prosecutors allege that she slowly moved forward and steered towards him, striking him fatally in the presence of their youngest child.
During a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Clark County District Attorney Kassandra Acosta remarked, “She knows the difference between reverse and drive,” regarding 40-year-old Andrea Roman, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Acosta emphasized, “She clearly knew.”
A criminal complaint accessed by Law&Crime accuses Roman of the “willful, deliberate, and premeditated” murder of 40-year-old Bryan Hicks, alleging that she struck him with her vehicle on October 18, 2025.
Facing charges of murder with a deadly weapon, Roman had been in a relationship with Hicks for approximately 20 years, sharing eight children with him, according to the Review-Journal. The couple was reportedly in a dispute outside an Olive Garden in North Las Vegas before the tragic event, with their youngest, a 4-year-old, present at the scene.
The fight started inside of Roman’s brand new Mitsubishi Outlander, which she had for less than a day, before spilling out into the parking lot, according to prosecutors. Hicks got out of the vehicle and Roman allegedly struck him with the Outlander; she claims she meant to put the car in reverse but accidentally accelerated forward.
“Look at the fact that Ms. Roman had just purchased this vehicle, had been using this car for basically the better part of the morning, and there was no testimony that she had been backing up and going forward,” defense attorney David Lopez-Negrete told the court during Roman’s preliminary hearing.
“I think if you add it all up, you see that there is a very viable argument that this was an accidental strike,” Lopez-Negrete said.
Acosta pointed out how the couple had been driving that morning and visited a pawn shop, where Roman allegedly would have had to reverse the Outlander while parking, the Review-Journal reports.
Roman claims she did not mean to hit Hicks, who died of traumatic asphyxia after getting pinned under her vehicle. Her lawyer says the Outlander did not have a traditional gearshift and when officers responded to the scene they were unable to pull Hicks out from under the car because the gears could not be changed.
Roman allegedly tried to flee after striking Hicks, but an Olive Garden patron who was in the parking lot reportedly drew a concealed firearm and commanded her to stop. Several other patrons reported seeing what happened while grabbing lunch at the Italian restaurant, including an off-duty police detective, according to local CBS affiliate KLAS.
On Tuesday, the Review-Journal reports that Roman was hysterical in the courtroom and wailing loudly while rocking back and forth. She appeared to use her fingers to plug her ears.
The judge overseeing Roman’s case ruled that there was enough evidence to support her murder charge and ordered the case to be heard by a jury. Roman was scheduled to return to court on Thursday for her arraignment.