Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Criminal past detailed in murder trial’s penalty phase

The jury that convicted Kevin Lisle and Jerry Lopez of murdering the 19-year-old son of the then-North Las Vegas Police Chief could decide today whether they live or die.

Lisle, 25, and Lopez, 26, face the possibility of death sentences for the execution shooting death of Justin Lusch on a dusty road in northwest Las Vegas in August 1994.

But Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon didn't push very hard for that sentence for Lopez during opening statements Tuesday in the penalty hearing in District Judge Sally Loehrer's courtroom.

Herndon did state that execution by lethal injection was appropriate for Lisle, an ex-felon who already has been convicted of another murder and sentenced to death.

The jury heard testimony Tuesday about that October 1994 shooting of Kip Logan after a traffic altercation on the U.S. 95 Expressway at Valley View Boulevard.

Deputy Public Defender Rebecca Blaskey conceded that Lisle has been connected to "terrible things ... horrible violence" but said there have been "terrible things done to him."

She noted that Lisle's childhood was filled with "abuse, neglect, fear and pain."

"He was once punished by being locked in the trunk of a car," Blaskey said while trying to explain his later involvement in drugs, gangs and crime.

"Judge critically but judge mercifully," she told the jury.

Lopez's attorney, David Schieck, argued that his client deserved the lightest sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years because he had a minor role in the slaying committed by Lisle.

Schieck added that Lopez had none of the criminal history that has tainted Lisle.

Key witnesses during last week's trial said that Lisle and Lopez confessed to them that they took Lusch to an isolated spot near Lone Mountain and shot him to death because they had perceived him to be a "snitch" who had not paid them for drugs.

Lisle was said to be the triggerman, who bragged that Lusch was "a rat and I'm glad I did it," Deputy District Attorney Dan Seaton said during closing arguments in the guilt phase.

Lopez, according to one witness, admitted he watched the killing in the rear view mirror of the car.

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