Reno, NV (AP) - A 41-year-old man with a violent criminal record was arraigned Wednesday on a first-degree kidnapping charge in the disappearance of an 18-year-old northern Nevada woman last seen more than two weeks ago.
Bail had been set at $750,000 after Troy Driver’s Friday arrest, and a judge in rural Lyon County left it unchanged during a brief court hearing Wednesday. Driver, of Fernley, has yet to enter a plea.
Justice of the Peace Lori Matheus said Driver will have to wear a GPS monitoring device if he posts a bond.
Driver has been held at the Lyon County Jail in Yerington as a suspect in what authorities have characterized as the abduction of Naomi Christine Irion.
He was arraigned from jail via Zoom.
Irion lives in Fernley with her older brother, Casey Valley, who told reporters after the hearing he was surprised any bail was set and voiced concern about “Troy Driver’s safety.”
“He’s the only one that can help us bring Naomi home. He’s the only one we know about,” Valley said outside the courthouse. “We’re in shock honestly. We’re all in shock.”
Irion last was seen about 5:25 a.m. March 12 in a Walmart parking lot in Fernley about 30 miles east of Reno. Security video showed a masked man wearing a hooded sweatshirt get into her car.
Her vehicle was found three days later near a paint manufacturing facility in an industrial park not far from the Walmart and Interstate 80.
Valley said earlier his sister usually catches a bus from the Walmart parking lot to work at a Reno-area Panasonic facility. Valley said she never arrived at work and he contacted family members and authorities when Irion didn’t return home that weekend.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information to locate Irion. Hundreds of volunteers have joined searches during the past two weeks, looking for clues in a vast desert area. Family members said Wednesday another search is planned this weekend.
Matheus set a court date for Driver next Tuesday, and a preliminary hearing April 12 to decide if there is evidence for Driver to be tried in state court. He could face life in prison without parole if he is convicted.
His defense lawyer, Mario Walther, did not immediately respond to requests for comment following the hearing.
Several news outlets have reported that Driver was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a 1997 murder case in Northern California.
Mendocino County Court records show he pleaded guilty that summer to robbery, burglary, firearms charges as well as to being an accessory to a felony after the fact.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Dana Simas said in an email to The Associated Press he was sentenced to 15 years on those charges on Aug. 19, 1997, was released to state parole supervision in 2012 and discharged from parole supervision in 2014.
Valley told reporters Wednesday that family members appreciate the support from the community and praised efforts by sheriff’s deputies and federal agents to find his sister.
“Lyon County and the FBI are working very hard,” he said. “I wish there was more and everybody does.”