Sentencing slated for LV killer

Wednesday, May 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A Las Vegas man will be sentenced July 17 on a guilty plea to a charge of second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend.

Miguel Angel Medina entered the plea Tuesday before District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski.

Medina has always admitted he was responsible for the shooting death of 17-year-old Lorraine Hopkins on May 8, 1996. But he maintained it was the accidental result of his careless handling of his new sawed-off shotgun.

According to preliminary hearing testimony, the teens made love shortly before the killing. Despite the sexual encounter, their relationship appeared troubled because of a "Dear Miguel" letter Hopkins had written complaining of the way he treated her and terminating their relationship.

In the letter she told him: "The Miguel I know is gone and replaced with an evil person." She lamented that Medina would "never know he had somebody good who loved him."

In a statement to police following the shooting, Medina, then 17, said he and Hopkins were playing with the pistol-grip shotgun with a 13-inch barrel in his apartment bedroom at 2605 Searles Ave.

Medina reportedly told officers that Hopkins pointed the pistol at him and told him to suck on the barrel. Medina said he then turned the shotgun on his girlfriend and made the same suggestion. The shotgun was then set aside, but Medina told police he later picked up the gun and swung it in front of him. As it passed Hopkins' face, it discharged.

Medina also pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a short-barreled shotgun and faces sentencing on that charge.