Investigators tell of grisly scene at horse killings

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1999 | 2:41 a.m.

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. - Detectives testifying at a hearing for three men accused of slaughtering wild horses described on Wednesday the dead, maimed and dying horses they discovered in foothills near Reno in December.

"The first horse we came across was a young foal that had been sprayed with a fire extinguisher," Storey County sheriff's Deputy Kirk Holden said. "Someone had sprayed the horse with a fire extinguisher in the face, in the nose area and genital area."

Another of the 34 horses was "thrashing around on the ground" and had to be put down, he said. One of the dead horses was a pregnant mare whose foal was partially born.

Their testimony came at the beginning of a Justice Court preliminary hearing that saw defense lawyers score some early victories for their clients, Anthony Merlino and two former Marines, Darien Brock and Scott Brendle.

The presiding justice of the peace sustained objections made by defense attorneys during the opening minutes of testimony by the prosecution's lead witness, Washoe County Sheriff's Detective Alan Artz.

The attorneys successfully attacked him as unqualified to determine whether the horses actually suffered gunshot wounds and challenged his expertise at determining whether the horse carcasses were found in Washoe or Storey county.

The barrage of objections from the trio of combative lawyers appeared to rattle Storey County District Attorney Janet Hess, who argued the topographical map of the canyon east of Reno where the dead horses were found should be allowed as evidence.

She said she would establish the map's authenticity later.

"It's not a defense stonewall," said Scott Freeman, who represents Merlino, 20. "I'll be making objections all day long. If she doesn't like it, too bad."

Hess said she would not comment until the preliminary hearing ends. It is expected to continue into Friday.

People from horse protection groups were among the 50 people packing the 123-year-old Storey County courthouse.

Betty Kelly of Carson City-based Wild Horse Spirit said she was not bothered by the defense lawyers' tactics.

"They seem to be running scared because they are picking at every little thing," she said.

Deborah Ellsworth of the Redwing Horse Sanctuary in Carmel, Calif., said she cried during the testimony about the maiming of the horses.

"That was really hard to listen to. I can't even imagine what those horses went through."

It was the worst known attack on the free-roaming mustangs in Nevada since several hundred were shot in the mid-1980s.

Freeman said for the first time on Tuesday that police had other suspects in the killings and the evidence would vindicate his client.

"We believe very strongly the real shooters are still out there," he said.

The three men, all former classmates at Reno's Wooster High School, are charged with grand theft, grand larceny and killing another person's animals. In this case, the "person" owning the animals is the U.S. government.

Brock, 21, and Brendle, 22, have been given the equivalent of dishonorable discharges from their Marine Corps bases in California.

Brock told a San Diego television station after he was arrested at Camp Pendleton that he saw his two friends shoot just one horse.

"I watched my two friends kill this horse without doing anything about it. Yes, that is wrong. That is what I'm going to court for. But we did not kill 34 horses that night," Brock said in January.