Las Vegas news briefs

Monday, Dec. 7, 1998 | 11:24 a.m.

Hospital nurses, professional, technical and clerical workers are voting. The final vote count is expected to be completed around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Sunrise Hospital and SEIU reached an agreement two months ago to have the vote.

FIRE -- Burning of a manufactured log in a gas fireplace may have been the cause of a fire that resulted in an estimated $50,000 damage to a condominium apartment in Henderson late Sunday, a Henderson Fire Department spokesman said.

Fire forced the evacuation of residents of an eight unit building in the Spanish Gardens condominiums.

Division Fire Chief Gene Belin said the two-alarm fire was confined to one unit in the eight units at 350 Sunward Dr.

There were no injuries.

Belin said the first fire unit arrived at 11:40 p.m. after a caller reported smoke coming from electrical outlets adjacent to a fireplace in the damaged apartment.

Firefighters found fire in the wall surrounding the fireplace and the fire extended into the attic.

The Clark County Fire Department assisted in fighting the blaze.

APPEAL DISMISSED -- The Nevada Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of Taniko Smith, sentenced to life in prison for the murder Mario Wesley outside a Las Vegas restaurant in July 1993.

The court rejected arguments by lawyers for Smith that there was insufficent evidence for a conviction. The court did agree that evidence of a prior robbery by Smith should not have been admitted at the murder trial. But the justices said that would not have changed the verdict of the jury.

It also said Smith never got proper notice that he was the target of a grand jury hearing. That, too, was not enough to overturn the case, the court ruled. It said Smith was not prejudiced by that failure.

Wesley, who was 24 at the time, and Christopher Brown emerged from a restaurant and were confronted by Smith and three other men. They were forced to lie on the ground and then robbed. Brown made it to his car, grabbed a gun and started firing at the four suspects.

Gunfire was returned, Brown was wounded, and Wesley was shot to death. Richard Gaston, an accomplice, pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence. Another man, Rodney Harris received a 10-year sentence on his murder conviction. The fourth man was not found.

FATAL -- The Nevada Highway Patrol has identified a 73-year-old homeless man struck by a car and killed Friday night as Eugene Drew.

NHP spokesman Scott Flabi said Drew was jaywalking on Paradise Road south of Karen Avenue when he was hit by a car driven by Keith R. Quilty, 32, of Las Vegas.

The accident occurred at about 11:30 p.m.

SEARCH -- Metro Police are looking for three people seen running from the scene of a fatal shooting on East Flamingo Road Saturday night.

Homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said a 35-year-old man was found shot to death in a parking lot of the Woodbridge Inn apartments, 700 E. Flamingo Road.

The name of the victim has not been released.

Police were called at 9:50 p.m.