Tuesday, Sept. 30, 1997 | 9:33 a.m.
A woman who lives in the same house in which a suspected killer was staying says the accused has an alibi.
"I swear to God he didn't do it," said Priscilla Willard. "I saw him sleeping on the couch at that time. I can't sit by and let this innocent kid go to prison."
But Metro Police stand by the arrest of 19-year-old Seth Linaman on Thursday, several hours after 20-year-old Richard Radcliffe was stabbed to death in the parking lot of his apartment complex.
"He was arrested on probable cause that we still believe in," homicide Sgt. Ken Hefner said.
Police say Radcliffe was killed shortly after 6:30 a.m. in an apartment complex parking lot in the 5100 block of O'Bannon Drive, near Oakey and Decatur boulevards.
Linaman, who recently moved to Las Vegas from Casper, Wyo., was arrested at the Meadows mall. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon.
Radcliffe's wife and her father, Howard Davis, left the apartment with the youngest of the couple's two children. Radcliffe and his 3-year-old son, Adam, were still asleep. Davis said he walked his daughter, who was going to work, out to her car and put his 2-month-old granddaughter, Amber, in her car seat.
As he walked back to the apartment, he noticed that the front door was open. When he walked in he saw a burglar. The man tried to open the sliding glass door, but when he couldn't he charged Davis, Davis said. Davis yelled out for his son-in-law to help him.
The intruder had grabbed a fannypack and money from inside the apartment, Davis said. By the time Radcliffe got to the two as they wrestled, the burglar was able to make it past Davis. Radcliffe followed.
He caught up with the intruder, who stabbed him, then ran away, police said.
Neighbors upstairs from the Radcliffes said the description of the man -- 5 feet 9, wearing long jean shorts, tennis shoes and a long blond ponytail, sounded like a friend of their son. That was what led police to Linaman.
Detectives went to the house, owned by Linaman's stepfather, about four miles away from where the murder occurred, and Willard told them Linaman was asleep at the time of the stabbing. Willard let them search Linaman's bedroom, she said. Police took some clothing, but officers didn't find the fannypack taken before the murder, police said.
"They told me I was mixed up on the times," Willard said. "But I know that at the time of the murder he was sleeping. I saw him sleeping."
Also, Linaman's father, Kevin Linaman, said his son is 6 feet 2, not 5 feet 9. No blood evidence was found on a knife sheath confiscated from inside Seth Linaman's car, police said. His father said he doesn't wear or own shorts or tennis shoes.
"I don't understand how they can keep him in jail," Willard said.
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