Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jury gets Lisle case

It will be up to a jury today to determine if Kevin Lisle and Jerry Lopez are guilty of murder in the shooting death of the teenage son of the then-North Las Vegas police chief.

Today was the day for closing arguments in the trial that was based largely around testimony from friends of the defendants, who said the murder of Justin Lusch was confessed to them.

On Tuesday, it was 18-year-old John Melcher's turn on the witness stand -- the second time he has assumed that position in a murder trial for Lisle.

Melcher testified that Lisle, 25, told him he looked Lusch in the eyes before killing him and "got a thrill out of it."

Lisle said Melcher would understand what he meant the first time he murdered someone, the witness told the jury in District Judge Sally Loehrer's courtroom.

Lusch, 19, was shot to death in August 1994 and his body was left beside a road in northwest Las Vegas.

Melcher said that Lopez, 26, also confessed to being involved in the murder, explaining that he watched in the rear view mirror of the car he was driving as Lisle fired several shots.

The motive for the slaying, according to trial testimony, was either over drug money owed to Lisle or because Lusch was presumed to be a "snitch."

Melcher admitted he has been nicknamed "Shotgun" since age 10 because he carried a sawed-off shotgun. He also described himself as Lisle's "enforcer," although he did not specify what his duties had been.

Melcher also had testified against Lisle over the murder of Kip Logan following a traffic altercation on the U.S. 95 Expressway at Valley View Boulevard. Lisle was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in that killing that occurred just two months after Lusch's violent death.

Melcher's testimony in the Lusch trial was attacked by defense attorneys because he also had been charged with murder in Logan's slaying but agreed to be a state witness against Lisle and Lopez in a plea bargain.

The deal sent his case to juvenile court where he was given probation after pleading guilty to being an accessory in Logan's death.

The same deal was given to 16-year-old Adam Evans, who testified Monday that Lisle and Lopez also confessed to him.

Lisle

Lopez

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