Gunshots pepper home; woman dies

Karen Zekan

Friday, June 5, 1998 | 11:52 a.m.

A North Las Vegas woman fatally wounded when a bullet blasted through her bedroom wall early Thursday had been planning to move out of the crime-plagued neighborhood later that day.

North Las Vegas Police found packing boxes scattered about the small house at 2004 Carver Ave., near Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards, when they began their search for clues in the murder that happened about 1:50 a.m.

Based on evidence found outside and inside the house, police believe Brandy Gail Stahlheber, 24, was an innocent victim. She was apparently hit while lying in bed, the fatal round fired outside her house from a neighboring yard.

Who fired the round that hit her in the upper chest is unknown, as is a motive.

Police have determined that between 15 to 20 shots were fired at the house, six to eight of them striking the house and two of those piercing the wall of Stahlheber's room, said Lt. Mike Blackwell, declining to provide the type or caliber of the suspected murder weapon.

"We don't believe she was the intended victim," Blackwell said today.

Troubling the investigation, however, are the many unknowns -- primarily, who the triggerman was.

Police were on Carver Street Thursday morning investigating a report of shots fired and were questioning four males on the street when they heard a woman a few doors down yell out that she was "taking her to the hospital."

The woman, later identified as Stahlheber's sister-in-law, got in a car and sped east on Carver. A Metro Police unit patrolling near Lake Mead Boulevard stopped the woman's car, found the victim and requested medical personnel, who pronounced Stahlheber dead.

"We were told that she was the only resident, and that others were coming and going," Blackwell said of the small three-bedroom house that had been enlarged some time ago with add-on rooms.

It was unknown if the sister-in-law was among those sharing the house. Blackwell said the sister-in-law, whose name was not disclosed, had been at a neighbor's house when she heard the shots and ran to Stahlheber's home to check on her.

The blighted neighborhood surrounding the 2000 block of Carver Street is one police respond to regularly on reports of drugs and shots fired.

"Cops are always trying to run off drugs dealers there, dope dealers and such," Blackwell said.

Police were outside Stahlheber's house Saturday night after being dispatched on a call of shots fired near the address. Investigators have yet to determine if there is any relationship between Saturday's call and the subsequent murder.