Friday, April 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
An alternative charge of second-degree murder has been filed against former Metro Police Officer Ron Mortensen over the drive-by shooting death of a Las Vegas gang member.
Although prosecutors still contend that Mortensen premeditatedly murdered 21-year-old Daniel Mendoza -- and is guilty of first-degree murder -- the new count will give a jury the option of a lesser charge.
The second-degree murder charge, according to Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot, alleges that shooting into the crowd on McKellar Circle was a reckless and dangerous act that would put human life at risk.
Defense attorney Frank Cremen did not object to the alternate charge, but said if it is included in the case, the jury must also be allowed to consider the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Despite the last-minute changes in the case, Mortensen's trial still will begin Monday in District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski's courtroom.
As a formality Thursday, Mortensen pleaded not guilty to the new charge.
If Mortensen, 31, is convicted of first-degree murder, he would face a minimum sentence of life in prison with no parole for 40 years. The maximum sentence, since prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, is life without parole.
Second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon carries a minimum sentence of 50 years and a maximum sentence of life. In either case, parole would not be possible for 20 years.
Involuntary manslaughter is punishable by one to four years in prison but also can result in probation.
Mortensen had been a Metro officer for only 16 months at the time of the Dec. 28 incident that came in the middle of what has been described as a night of drunken revelry for his 31st birthday.
Mortensen's friend, then-fellow Metro Officer Christopher Brady, was driving his truck with Mortensen as a passenger as they harassed drug dealers and gang members in the crime infested area near Twain Avenue and Paradise Road.
Brady told a grand jury that he and Mortensen were on their way from one bar to another when their harassment of a handful of gang members on McKellar Circle resulted in six shots being fired and Mendoza's death.
Brady told supervisors of the incident 36 hours later after learning someone had died, explaining that Mortensen originally had told him that the shots were into the trees.
That 24-year-old officer, who quit the department over the incident, has not been charged in the case and has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
But defense attorney Frank Cremen has been critical of that decision by prosecutors and has alleged that evidence in the case has been altered or destroyed by Brady.
Cremen noted that Brady's blue truck has been painted and the custom seats inside when the shots were fired have been replaced with the original seats before the defense had a chance to examine the vehicle.
In addition, the clothes Brady wore that night were laundered before being turned over to defense experts for analysis, Cremen has complained to Pavlikowski.
He complained that the evidence was altered despite an order from a justice of the peace to prevent that.
On Thursday, Koot said that Cremen had uncovered the whereabouts of the missing truck seats and asked Pavlikowski for an order that prosecutors be permitted to examine the items. Pavlikowski agreed and emphasized that it should occur before trial begins Monday.
Although Brady was the first to point the finger of guilt at Mortensen, one of the gang members also picked him out of a lineup as the gunman. Mortensen's pistol also has been determined to be the weapon that killed Mendoza.
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