Las Vegas news briefs

Thursday, April 8, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

A 51-year-old Las Vegas man who died in Metro Police custody March 17 after an officer used pepper spray to subdue him had a bad heart, the Clark County coroner said.

As a result of the findings that Loy Lavaughn Chick died from severe arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease, the coroner has ruled his death accidental.

Chick's struggling with two police officers who were trying to restrain him apparently brought on his heart attack, not the blast of pepper spray, officials said.

"There is no indication of any wrongdoing or improprieties on the part of the officers involved," Metro Lt. Wayne Petersen said shortly after Chick died.

At about 3:30 p.m. on March 17, police got two calls from an apartment complex in the 600 block of East Bonanza Road concerning a man acting strangely.

Two patrol officers found a man outside the apartment complex. When the man ran inside his apartment, the officers followed and a struggle ensued, police said.

One of the officers pepper-sprayed the man, who was then handcuffed, police said. The officer called for paramedics to wash the spray from the man's eyes. When paramedics arrived, the man went into what police called respiratory arrest.

Mother pleads not-guilty in death

An Aug. 30 trial date has been set for 20-year-old Shonea Greene on charges she scalded her 2-year-old daughter in a bath.

Greene pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder charges that could carry a life prison sentence if she is convicted.

Dezjanea Taylor died Feb. 6 at University Medical Center of burns that covered nearly 60 percent of her body, two days after she was allegedly held in the scalding water as punishment for regressing in her potty training.

North Las Vegas Police Officer Andrew Karas testified at a March 26 preliminary hearing that the scalding removed the child's flesh from the waist down.

The family lived in a North Las Vegas Housing Authority apartment on 1634 Stocker St., court records show.

Police say man hit by car jaywalked

An 84-year-old Las Vegas man was struck by a car and killed while jaywalking Wednesday, police said.

Metro Police investigators say Julius Stefanski was crossing Decatur Boulevard near Twain Avenue at about 1:30 p.m. when he was hit by a 1997 GMC pick-up truck.

Stefanski was taken to University Medical Center where he died. Police identified the driver of the truck as Edward Dodd, 64, of Pahrump.

Dodd was not injured.

LV boy killed in Texas crash

A Las Vegas youth was among three teenage boys killed in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday when their van blew a tire, struck a pickup truck and crashed into a guardrail on Interstate 10.

El Paso police Detective Teresa Chavira identified the three as: Jordy Estrada, 16, of Las Vegas,; Luis Javier Martinez, 14, of El Paso; and Samuel de la Riva, 16, of El Paso.

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