Preliminary hearing held for alleged triggerman

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999 | 10:50 a.m.

The charges against 19-year-old Donte Johnson already portray him as a man quick to use a gun and willing to kill.

Testimony at a preliminary hearing Tuesday did nothing but reinforce that image.

Johnson already is facing a Jan. 10 trial on charges he was the triggerman who executed four young men in a drug-driven robbery on Aug. 14, 1998. A co-defendant in that case named him as having been involved in another drug-related slaying a few days before.

Prosecutors also contend he joined in a shooting spree at a small hotel and casino that targeted a man over yet another drug dispute.

There additionally was an incident when a gun was pulled on a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper who stopped a stolen car he said was driven by Johnson just three days after the quadruple murder.

On Tuesday visiting Justice of the Peace Marley Robinson ruled Johnson would stand trial on charges of attempted murder and battery after a preliminary hearing in which Derrick Simpson told how he was shot in the face and back by Johnson on May 4, 1998, in a drug-related dispute.

Johnson will be arraigned Oct. 25 in District Judge Donald Mosley's courtroom.

Simpson, whose face was permanently contorted because of the bullet that ripped through it, testified from a wheelchair. The bullet in his back paralyzed him below the neck.

Simpson told how he was in and out of a coma for three months and spent a total of 10 months in a hospital. While he has use of his right arm, his left arm has limited mobility.

Simpson testified that Johnson was his crack cocaine supplier, and the confrontation erupted after the victim attempted to again buy drugs from the defendant but was refused.

He said Johnson started to pull a pistol, and Simpson hit him in defense and fled. It was a matter of only a few minutes before the two met again and the nearly fatal shots were fired.

Johnson is the last of three defendants to stand trial in the quadruple murders in August 1998 of Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, Matthew Mowen, 19, and Peter Talamantez, 17. The other two, 19-year-old Sikia Smith and 20-year-old Terrell Cochise Young, were convicted for their roles and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In their confessions to police those two defendants named Johnson as the one who stood over each of the four young men and fired single bullets into their heads.

The murder culminated a robbery that was supposed to garner about $6,000 in cash and a quantity of drugs from the victims' home near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard. Only about $200 and a few pills were taken.

The four victims had been duct-taped and laid out on the floor of the home while it was ransacked.