Jury clear officers of shooting man during standoff

Saturday, Aug. 23, 1997 | 10:25 a.m.

The jury took just seven minutes Friday to decide the officers acted justifiably in firing at James McClintic, who died from one bullet wound to the upper body on July 20.

His mother, Audrey, took the stand and told the panel her son was distraught over the death three days earlier of his girlfriend, Judy Johnson, who was struck by a car crossing Sahara Avenue.

Testimony during the daylong hearing revealed McClintic as a man weighed down by several personal problems as well as physical afflictions.

Johnson's 20-year-old son, whom McClintic had helped raise, had died in his sleep about a year earlier, Audrey McClintic said. She said her son's dog had also died in the days before the confrontation.

"He just wanted to die, he just didn't want to live anymore," she testified. "He figured he wouldn't do it ... somebody else had to."

Four officers with the Las Vegas police SWAT team testified they fired their weapons after McClintic lowered his own shotgun and pointed it directly at one of the officers.

Seven shots were fired, but only two struck McClintic, one in the upper body and one in the thigh. The jury ruled it was SWAT officer Chris Matthews who fired the fatal bullet.

Matthews said as he arrived at the Palm Grove Mobile Home park, he saw McClintic carrying the shotgun "over his shoulder as if he were hunting."

He described police negotiations as fruitless and said he felt his hand was forced when McClintic aimed his weapon toward officers.

The three other policemen who fired, Gavin Vesp, Kevin McCord and Thomas Carpenter, each gave similar testimonies, saying there was an immediate threat to their lives.

The standoff began about 3 p.m. when police received a call about a man with a gun. Las Vegas police officer Janet Llones, one of the first on the scene, said McClintic early on had fired two shots into the air and later aimed four shots toward her police vehicle.