After jail, Tom Nuanez spent his last years getting drinkers home safe

Even Sedona residents who never took a ride with “Sedona Tom” knew the man, his iconic van and his mission: To safely shepherd drunk people home.

“I was voted in this town years ago to not amount to anything and then die by the age of 30 the way I was going,” Tom Nuanez, better known as Sedona Tom, said in a July 2024 NEWS interview. “I’m 70. I’m outliving everybody and healthy, 23 years of addiction and everything possible I could run through this body I did, and damn I came out with some brain cells left in a body that still works.”

Nuanez, 72, died from lung cancer at 2:35 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, but not before running Sedona Tom’s Helping Hands Designated Driver service for about the last 15 years.

Running mostly seven nights a week, he had a self-described mission: “I get drunk people home.”

“You got money, you don’t got money, I take care of you.”

— Tom Nuanez

Feb. 20, 1954 – Oct. 6, 2026

“There’s no fees, there’s no meters,” he said. “You got money or you don’t got money, I take care of you.”

Thomas “Tigh” Nuanez, 48, was the oldest of Sedona Tom’s four children which include Heather, Cordero and Aitana said his father had faith that the passengers would do the same for his father.

“He chose to make sure that people got home safe, even if they wanted to still make those decisions and drink and enjoy their life that way,” Tigh Nuanez said. “He just knew it was going to provide for him by giving back to other people without asking for anything really in return.”

“You learn by your mistakes,” Sedona Tom said in 2024. “I tell people today that they’re trying to get sober. Man, just put one foot in front of the other. [It] isn’t rocket science just don’t put that [expletive] in your body. I complicated the hell out of it too, and I look back over my life right now going why’d I complicate my life so badly?”

Throughout his life, Sedona Tom was self-employed.

“He’s never really ever been employed by somebody else,” Tigh Nuanez said.

“I was my best customer,” Sedona Tom said.

In the late 1980s, Nuanez was arrested in a drug sting in Clarkdale after a partner turned on him, he said. His case went before former Yavapai County Superior Court Judge James B. Sult.

“I made a commitment 35 years ago when I got busted, when I got sober. Because I had 10 Class 2s [felonies] for narcotic sale, dangerous drugs,” Nuanez said.

“I did a year and a half in the county,” he said. “But it’s like, I’ve been protected for my whole life. I’ve been in trouble since I was born. But the thing is, I had like 150 years on my head. And I plea-bargained down to 30 years. I made him drop eight class 2s with prejudice, so they can never pick them up, because there’s no statute of limitation on class 2s. I’m a good lawyer.”

Nuanez said he got that legal experience from 23 years on the other side of the law, “I learned well,” he said with a laugh.

After more than a year in jail, Nuanez bonded out, which he said “was kind of a mistake, because I came out drinking again” and got a DUI two weeks before he was sentenced.

“I’m like three days without a drink, shaking like a leaf, sick as a dog,” Nuanez said. “Judge pulls my arrest record and goes, ‘What’s wrong with this?'”

He told the judge, “It’s really long, your honor.”

“He goes, ‘Not the length. From age 17 to today, you’ve never paid consequences for anything in your life. There’s no convictions on this whole sheet of paper. And I’m like, this isn’t a good thing,” Nuanez said. “He goes, ‘But everybody in this room thinks you’re worth saving. He goes, ‘The district attorney, he wants to give you a second chance and give you five years’ probation and you get sober.'”

Sult suspended the 30-year sentence and gave Nuanez five years probation, which Nuanez finished without a violation.

He got and stayed sober around the start of 1990, his son said.

The irony wasn’t lost on Nuanez: A man who once faced 150 years on drug charges spent his later years working with Sedona police, “coordinating with them all the time,” to get people home safe.

“I love people. And I like being a maximum service to the human race,” Nuanez posted to social media on July 17, 2025. “As most of you know I got priced out of Sedona. When the Windsong trailer park sold. But that’s OK, it was time for me to leave my hometown. Basically cuz it’s not Sedona anymore…. I’m living in Cornville…. I’m still going for the dream of a piece of property where I can put together a mini farm, where people can come to recover, and learn skills. Like planting food, like taking care of animals and chickens and whatever else comes my way.”

In Cornville, Nuanez lived on the property of his friend Celeste De Luz. She met him around 2017 at karaoke at Old Sedona Bar & Grill, where he would stop in to see if anyone needed a ride.

“When he would walk in to the bar, everyone would greet him,” De Luz said. “Every single person that meets Tom feels like they have a close and special connection with him, and that’s just because of Tom’s character. He just makes people feel heard and safe and special.”

“He was a super easy tenant. He didn’t ask for much,” De Luz said. “I would insist that he used my laundry inside the house, and he would refuse my laundry machine and go to the laundromat like he was used to doing.”

“I ran for mayor two years ago and I stepped away ‘nah I’m not going to deal with you guys,'” Nuanez said. “So I just go out here and I do what I need to do to help the community. I’m not looking for a big house on the hill, I’m not looking for the fancy cars or big bank accounts. I don’t really give a [expletive].”

A celebration of life is tentatively set for Dec. 12, with the location not yet chosen. However, two karaoke benefits for Sedona Tom are scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, at Mooney’s Irish Pub in Sedona and on Friday, Oct. 16, at Main Stage Sports Bar in Cottonwood, both at 9 p.m. A GoFundMe set up in his name has raised $6,315 out of an $8,000 goal.