Two Guards Tell of Fatal Takeover Attempt

Saturday, Sept. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

William Melton and David Murray, both now retired, said they thought they would also be killed during the two-day ordeal.

Murray said he and two guards who had been held hostage for more than 40 hours were threatened repeatedly with death, then used as human shields when ringleaders of the uprising thought police were ready to storm the jail.

Murray said McKenna told the guards, "When the SWAT pigs come in, they're going to have to go over you guys first."

The testimony came Friday in a penalty hearing for McKenna, who is considered Nevada's most dangerous inmate. McKenna has been sentenced to death twice for the January 1979 killing of cellmate J.J. Nobles, but both sentences have been overturned on appeal. Prosecutors are seeking for a third time to obtain a death sentence in the Nobles killing.

The jail hostage drama began on Saturday morning, Aug. 25, 1979, and ended just before dawn on Monday when McKenna surrendered after engaging in a gun battle with two other inmate leaders, Eugene Shaw and Felix Lorenzo. Shaw and Lorenzo were killed in the shootout.

The jail shooting is just one of a long list of crimes, including murder, rape and escape, that McKenna, 50, has amassed in a life of crime dating back to his teen-age years.

Murray said he was working vacation relief when inmates seized a guard, then took he and Melton hostage, arming themselves with guns belonging to the officers.

"Mr. McKenna was constantly saying 'I'm going to blow your kneecaps off,' " Murray told jurors. "He was continually pointing the gun at my head or my testicles. I was terrified of Mr. McKenna."

Murray said he was given two minutes to talk to his wife on the phone Sunday afternoon after jail trustees said the ringleaders planned to kill the three guards.

"By Monday morning they had gone completely crazy," Murray said of the three leaders, his voice breaking. "There was screaming, yelling, then gunshots."

Murray and Melton said McKenna, Shaw and Lorenzo became engaged in a gunfight as their hopes of escape began to unravel, with SWAT teams waiting to rush the facility.

Murray said one of the inmates placed a mattress over him for protection, telling the guard "Tell your son I did this and put a rose on my grave."

Shaw and Lorenzo were killed and McKenna escaped injury in the battle between the three ringleaders.

Murray said he talked McKenna into surrendering.

Melton testified McKenna "seemed to be the main leader" in the jail uprising.

Melton was wounded in the hand during the gun battle between the inmates.

Melton recalled a wounded Shaw stumbling toward him.

"I don't know how he could help but be full of holes, with all the shooting going on," Melton said.

Shaw suffered eight gunshot wounds, according to police.

Former Las Vegas Metro Police Detective Charles Lee testified that McKenna provided one statement saying he was not involved in the shootings, then a second saying he fired an entire clip of bullets at Shaw in self defense.

Another former Metro officer, John Samolovitch, testified that McKenna gave him a written statement in January 1979 listing several homicides and robberies in Nevada and the northwest in which he said he was involved.

He said McKenna was "confessing" to the crimes in hopes of getting favorable treatment from authorities.

Samolovitch said McKenna wanted to avoid the death penalty in connection with the strangulation of cellmate Nobles two days earlier.

McKenna, who has spent most of his adult life in Nevada jails and prisons, "wanted to do soft time" in a prison outside of Nevada or California, Samolovitch said.

"He wanted to be able to read, study, relax without his life being threatened by contacts he had made in prison," Samolovitch said.

Police refused to cut any deal.