Not-guilty plea entered in drive-through death

Bill Gang

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 12:02 p.m.

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether the death penalty will be sought for a 17-year-old charged with spraying gunfire in a McDonald's restaurant that killed a mother waiting at the drive-through window.

Miguel Cano pleaded not guilty Monday to murder and attempted murder charges in the March 18 shooting that killed Crystal Ledesma outside the restaurant at 3229 Losee Road in North Las Vegas.

The district attorney's office now has 30 days to declare whether death by lethal injection will be sought if Cano is convicted of first-degree murder.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle on Monday set a Sept. 20 trial date for Cano on the charge that also could be punishable by life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

Cano was arrested about nine hours after the 24-year-old woman was killed by two bullets intended for another person, according to North Las Vegas police.

Cano and several other young people were involved in an argument that began outside the restaurant and moved inside before the gunfire erupted. Two shots passed through the open drive-through window and through an open window of a pickup truck, killing Ledesma, who was in the passenger seat.

The shots narrowly missed the pickup's driver and the victim's 5-year-old son, who was sitting between the two adults.

"It was just a random act of stupidity," North Las Vegas Police Lt. Joseph Forti said after the shooting.