A Nevada man accused of kidnapping and killing 18-year-old Naomi Irion earlier this year has now been charged with sexual assault.
Troy Driver, 41, was arrested and charged in connection with the teenager’s disappearance in late March – nearly two weeks after the victim disappeared while waiting for a work shuttle in a Walmart parking lot in Fernley, Nevada, during the early morning hours.
The defendant was first charged with kidnapping. Law enforcement cited surveillance video showing Irion sitting and waiting in her parked car as a man in a dark hoodie, jeans, and a mask gets inside before the car departs with both the victim and her assumed kidnapper inside.
“[S]he was abducted by a nondescript male who entered the driver’s seat of her vehicle,” the FBI wrote on a wanted poster about her case. “Three days later, Naomi’s vehicle was located next to the Sherman Williams Western Emulsion Plant.”
Irion’s body was found just days after the arrest – based on an anonymous tip about a “gravesite.”
“The body of an adult Caucasian female was recovered from that gravesite, the body was transported to the Washoe County Medical Examiners Office for an autopsy and to confirm identification,” the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said. “On March 30, 2022 the remains were confirmed as those of Naomi Irion, the family has been notified.”
In April of this year, Driver was charged with murder via the use of a deadly weapon for allegedly shooting his victim in the head and chest, destruction of evidence for allegedly destroying or attempting to conceal the victim’s cellular phone across multiple Silver State counties, and for allegedly changing out the tires on his truck in order to evade detection. He was additionally charged with robbery and burglary of a motor vehicle over the alleged initial car theft.
A superseding indictment tacks on two additional charges.
“[Driver] did willfully and unlawfully subject another person to sexual penetration against the person’s will or under conditions in which the perpetrator knew or should have known that the victim is mentally or physically incapable of resisting or understanding the nature of the conduct,” the document filed on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 alleges. “[Driver] did subject Naomi Irion to sexual penetration, namely anal penetration, against her will or under conditions in which the defendant knew or should have known that the victim was mentally or physically incapable of resisting.”
Authorities go on to allege all the other crimes were committed with intent to facilitate and/or to conceal the sexual assault.
The superseding indictment also adds one count of illegal firearm possession, specifically that Driver was a felon in possession of a weapon.
The defendant’s attorney has moved for a change of venue. Public defender Richard Davies reportedly first said he would make such a request based on pre-trial publicity, according to Fox News.
A report by Reno, Nev.-based NBC affiliate KRNV says that request was actually recently made based on the location of the murder occurring in a separate county. Local authorities dispute that.
“The sexual assault occurred during the course of the kidnapping, which started in Lyon County and continued into Churchill County,” Lyon County District Attorney Stephen Rye said in comments reported by the Reno Gazette Journal. “The felony murder theory is dependent upon the kidnapping, a crime committed in part in one county and in part in another.”
The recently filed indictment also stakes out that same argument regarding venue.
A preliminary hearing in the case is currently slated for Sept. 13, 2022.
[images: Naomi Irion via FBI; Troy Driver via Lyon County Sheriff’s Office]
