Men linked to killings face additional charges

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

Two of the three men charged in the execution slayings of four young men in August 1998 have pleaded not guilty to unrelated charges.

For Terrell Cochise Young, 20, who last month was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole, another conviction would have little consequence unless his murder conviction were overturned.

Young now faces charges of felony battery by a prisoner and a gross misdemeanor count of assault on an officer in the attack on a Clark County Detention Center corrections officer a short time after a jury had pronounced him guilty.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure on Monday set a Dec. 20 trial date.

Donte Johnson, 19, who will stand trial Jan. 10 on charges he was the triggerman in the quadruple murder, pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations that he shot a man in the face and the back during a drug-related confrontation, paralyzing him.

District Judge Donald Mosley set a July 3 trial date on the charges of attempted murder and battery with the use of a deadly weapon.

During a recent Justice Court hearing, Derrick Simpson told how he was shot in the face and back by Johnson on May 4, 1998, and how he was in and out of a coma for three months.

Simpson's face is permanently contorted because of the bullet that ripped through it, and he is confined to a wheelchair.

The charges against Young allege he took advantage of a one-on-one situation with Corrections Officer Greg Reeves and attacked him in a violent flurry of punches.

The assault came a short time after Young was convicted of four counts of murder and 10 other charges and just moments after a stun belt was being removed to return him to his jail cell.

Johnson will be the last of three defendants to stand trial in the slayings of Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, Matthew Mowen, 19, and Peter Talamantez, 17 during a drug-driven robbery on Aug. 14, 1998.