Indictments returned in two Southern Nevada killings

Monday, Dec. 6, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

Two unrelated indictments by a Clark County grand jury will bring to court the cases of men who were killed in the Las Vegas Valley.

A North Las Vegas man was indicted on charges he was under the influence of methamphetamine when his car drove onto a sidewalk near the Tropicana hotel-casino and killed a doctor visiting from South Dakota.

Otis Haley, 25, will be arraigned Wednesday in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom on the felony drunken driving and drug charges.

Walter Bass, 51, was walking with his wife when he was hit by Haley's car, police said. The woman was not injured, and Haley suffered only minor injuries.

The man who confessed to police in October that he was the killer in a North Las Vegas slaying 20 years ago also was indicted.

David Ferrell, 39, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in District Judge Kathy Hardcastle's courtroom on charges that could carry a life prison term if he is convicted.

Ferrell is alleged to have killed 52-year-old Wilbert Wendeburg by stabbing him 10 times and slashing his throat at the victim's home near Las Vegas Boulevard North and Carey Avenue.

After Ferrell was arrested on a charge of being drunk in public in Long Beach, Calif., in October, he admitted to police there that he was involved in Wendeburg's slaying, police said.

According to North Las Vegas Police, he claimed the death occurred as a result of unwanted sexual advances by the victim.