Victim says elderly suspect stalked her

Thursday, Feb. 12, 1998 | 10:40 a.m.

Betty Sault, 59, said the accused assailant, Jesse Rosson, was angry because she broke off their relationship several years ago.

"I am not his girlfriend," Sault told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Sault, her fiance, Richard Kennicutt, 53, and three bystanders were wounded when Rosson allegedly opened fire on them at the Club Cal-Neva Tuesday night.

Rosson, who uses a walker, was detained by casino security guards and held for police. He was charged with two counts of attempted murder and three counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

Rosson's gun was loaded with snakeshot, small metal pellets used in ammunition to hunt snakes, and the victims suffered mostly welts, authorities said.

Sault said she met Rosson when she was homeless and lived along the Truckee River.

"I was homeless in Reno six years. I've been with Rick three years. He protects me from that old man," she said.

Sault said Rosson began stalking her in 1994, after he had been jailed for shooting at gun at or near her.

"It's a terrible thing when you're always looking around and he's there," she said. "I have horrible nightmares of him trying to kill me."

Court records confirm Rosson was arrested on June 6, 1994 for assault with a deadly weapon, the newspaper said. He pleaded guilty to a lesser offense and was sentenced to eight days in jail and fined $25.