Murder charges dropped against UNLV student

Bill Gang

Thursday, March 26, 1998 | 10:26 a.m.

After he spent six months in jail awaiting trial, murder charges have been dropped against a 25-year-old UNLV criminal justice student.

But in spite of the decision by prosecutors, Miguel Octavio Lopez wasn't completely blameless in the Feb. 28, 1997, incident during a beer bash involving college and high school students.

Lopez admitted he brought a gun to the party near the Boulder Highway and Pabco Road in Henderson and had fired a "warning shot" after a fight erupted and he saw one of his brothers being beaten.

Lopez said his brother had been hit in the mouth with a tequila bottle during the fray, losing four teeth, according to Lopez's attorney, Carmine Colucci.

The gun was yanked away from Lopez by someone who, moments later, fired it into the crowd as Lopez and his two brothers fled the party.

Erik Gates was killed and Bobby Mireles was injured by the gunfire.

Colucci said that Lopez left Nevada after the incident, but returned several months later to take a polygraph test administered by the private firm of Gonzalez and Associates about his involvement in the shooting. The lawyer said that Lopez passed that examination although he failed a later one administered by Metro Police.

Lopez subsequently was indicted by a Clark County Grand Jury and held in jail without bail until he was cleared in February by a witness to the melee at the beer bash that police had not interviewed.

William Howard, who lived across the street from where the party was based, told defense investigator Mike Levin and police that he watched the fight and saw a short Hispanic man fire the shots over the top of a car.

Colucci noted that Lopez is 6 feet tall.

Howard said he saw the shooter get into a red car and drive off, while evidence showed Lopez and his brothers left in a truck, the lawyer said.

Colucci said the state's case was based in part on the identification of Lopez by an informant who was "working off" charges against him and a statement by Mireles that Lopez resembled the shooter, although he couldn't be certain.

Faced with the tenuous identifications and the other evidence, prosecutors concluded that while Lopez fired the warning shot, they would have difficulty convicting him of shooting the two victims.

Murder charges were finally dropped last week and Lopez was released from jail, but that doesn't mean he is a free man.

Colucci said Lopez still faces drug charges and a count of possessing stolen property that are unrelated to the slaying.