Convicted killer faces more charges in string of deaths

Bill Gang

Monday, July 19, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.

Already convicted of one murder and serving a life prison term with no possibility of parole, Brian Keith Robinson is back in trial in the second of four murders he is charged with committing during a three-month period in 1996.

North Las Vegas Police have labeled the 21-year-old defendant a serial killer.

Assistant District Attorney Charles Thompson said in 1997 that Robinson was "his own crime wave."

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said during opening statements Friday that witnesses to the Nov. 14, 1996, shooting death of 17-year-old Germaine McKines will name Robinson as the killer.

If convicted of murder in this or one of the other two cases, Robinson could receive the death penalty.

Laurent told the jury in Chief District Judge Lee Gates' courtroom that McKines was apologizing to Robinson for an earlier dispute over rap group affiliations, although pretrial hearings indicated that gang affiliations also were an issue.

Gates has ruled that gang involvement is not legally admissible in the trial of Robinson, a purported street gang member from Compton, Calif.

"You have to claim Nut Clan not Murder Bloc," Robinson was quoted by witnesses as telling the victim, the prosecutor said, explaining the two were rap groups active in the North Las Vegas neighborhood near Civic Center Drive and Cheyenne Avenue.

"It's not that serious," McKines is said to have replied.

"You have to claim Nut Clan or I'll kill you," Robinson is alleged to have responded, pulling out a .40-caliber pistol, Laurent said.

McKines repeated, "Man, it's not that serious" a moment before he was shot three times, Laurent told jurors.

Robinson, whose street moniker is "B-Mac," moved to North Las Vegas a few months before the string of murders around the Cheyenne Condominiums, 3301 Civic Center Drive, North Las Vegas police said.

After Robinson's arrest on Dec. 23, 1996, North Las Vegas experienced a three-month lull in murders, police said.

The killings began in September 1996, before Robinson was alleged to have become involved, police said.

Darnell Watson was shot in the head and killed and Adonis Rodriguez was shot but survived in a shooting that resulted in the arrest of Robinson's friend, Lonnie Garner.

A witness to that incident was 19-year-old Tracy Kennedy, but on Sept. 21, 1996, a couple of days before he was due to testify in North Las Vegas Justice Court, he was gunned down.

Robinson was convicted of first-degree murder in September in that death, although his associate Derrick Hilliard is charged with being the triggerman.

The second slaying occurred Oct. 10, when 36-year-old reputed drug user James Sharpe was shot 11 times with two pistols while he was being robbed of $30 hidden in his boot.Robinson is alleged to be one of the gunmen, and police are still seeking a second suspect.

Ten days later, 42-year-old Steve Delgado, a member of the U.S. Amateur Boxing Association who was crowned the 1980 North American Boxing Federation junior middleweight champion, was shot twice in the head during a drive-by shooting, police said. His body was left under a tree in the condominium complex.

Police called the shooting drug-related, based in part on Delgado's 1990 conviction in Massachusetts for drug trafficking. Prosecutors have said it may have been nothing more than a random slaying.

Afterward Robinson is alleged to have gone to a friend's condominium and bragged about killing Delgado. When the friend questioned the claim, Robinson allegedly revealed the location of the body, police said.