Bizarre second arrest made in four slayings

Karen Zekan and Bill Gang

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.

A second suspect in last month's execution-style quadruple murder is behind bars today after he accidentally crossed paths with the Metro Police sergeant who is handling the case.

Sgt. Ken Hefner, who was heading out to lunch when he spotted suspect Terrell Cochise Young, was cut at least once on the neck in a scuffle during the arrest.

Young, 19, remained in Clark County Detention Center this morning without bail. He has been charged with four counts each of using a weapon to commit murder, robbery and kidnapping.

He is also facing a single count of burglary with a weapon in connection with murders of Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, Matthew Mowen, 19, and Peter Talamantez, 17.

The arrest, which took place 100 yards from homicide headquarters at a bus stop at Rainbow and Charleston boulevards, is perhaps the most unusual development to surface in one of the valley's most gruesome crimes.

Police believe the Aug. 14 killings were committed by at least two men who entered the southeast Las Vegas home at 4825 Terra Linda Ave., bound the victims' hands and feet with duct tape, fatally shot them in their heads, and then fled with $240 of the victims' money and a pager.

Police for weeks had little more than the street name "Red" to go on in catching their second suspect after three witnesses came forward and told police that Red and another man had been bragging about the killings hours after the bodies were found, according to the arrest report.

The break in the case came Tuesday night when information reached detectives that "Red" was Young, a Las Vegas resident, Hefner said.

Police had a hint that Young could be close by, having learned that the man had relatives living near the Charleston-Rainbow area.

So it seemed logical enough to Hefner that the man he saw standing on the Charleston Boulevard median facing him Tuesday could well be his suspect.

Hefner said he ran back into the office and got to detectives before following the 5-foot-9-inch, 260-pound Young up the street to a bus stop where he was arrested. Young had been walking with two of his younger relatives who were later released to family members.

"It's definitely a first," Hefner said of the bizarre situation where an outstanding suspect almost literally landed on homicide's doorstep.

Young's arrest came a day after his alleged accomplice, 19-year-old Donte Johnson, was indicted by a Clark County Grand Jury on charges that he is responsible for last month's slayings motivated by what prosecutors believed was an apparent drug money rip-off.

Johnson was arrested by Metro's SWAT team four days after the killings. Police had tracked him to a residence a few blocks from the Terra Linda home. A search of the Everman Street home ended up with police finding a partial roll of duct tape and one of the victims' possessions found buried in the back yard, authorities said.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon said that toxicology tests on the four victims showed drugs in each of their systems.

But Guymon said that drugs left at the murder scene "leads one to believe (the killer or killers) were not interested in drugs, but in the money oftentimes associated with drugs."

Wednesday's indictment replaces the need for a Justice Court preliminary hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold Johnson for a District Court trial.

Acting Chief District Judge Michael Douglas ordered that Johnson be held without bail until he is arrainged Sept. 8 in District Judge Jeff Sobel's courtroom on the charges that have the potential of resulting in a death sentence if he is convicted.