Bar killings draw life without parole

Kim Smith

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 10:10 a.m.

A Las Vegas teenager convicted of killing his best friend and a local bartender in an attempted robbery was sentenced to life in prison Monday without the possibility of parole.

Kenshawn Maxey, 19, was sentenced Monday morning after his attorneys were unsuccessful in their attempt to convince District Judge Mark Gibbons to give him a new trial.

According to court testimony, Maxey and his best friend, Lashawn Levi, 18, entered the O'Aces bar on Rainbow Boulevard in May 1998 with the intention of robbing it.

The two forced everyone to get on the floor, and Levi went behind the bar to empty the cash register. Levi ended up struggling with the bartender, Salvatore Zendano.

Maxey testified that a shot rang out and Levi yelled at him to shoot the bartender. When he did, Zendano was struck and killed by five bullets and Levi was killed with one shot.

Maxey was arrested as he dragged Levi outside. A jury convicted him in February on eight charges in connection with the incident, including first-degree murder, burglary, kidnapping and battery. Because a gun was used, some of the sentences were automatically doubled.

A third man, Artis Moore, who was the getaway driver, is serving a no-parole life sentence.

Special Public Defender Philip Kohn and Assistant Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld argued that the state should not have been allowed to argue that the murder of Zendano was the result of both premeditation and an armed robbery.

Instead, the attorneys said, Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens should have had to choose one or the other. Had Owens chosen premeditation, the attorneys felt they would have been able to convince a jury that the shooting happened on impulse, therefore obtaining a second-degree murder conviction rather than a first-degree murder conviction.

With a second-degree murder conviction, Maxey would have been eligible for parole after 40 years.

Kohn argued that he and Wildeveld should be allowed to retry the case, but Gibbons did not agree.

That being the case, Wildeveld sought to convince Gibbons that Maxey should get a life sentence with the possibility of parole. She reminded Gibbons of trial testimony indicating that Maxey was a victim of abuse most of his life, doesn't have a significant criminal background and was only 17 at the time of the murders.

Wildeveld said the state believes Maxey robbed a convenience store two months before the bar robbery, but fingerprints helped identify another suspect who has no connection to her client. Moreover, Maxey was in a juvenile detention center at the time of that robbery.

Owens disputed Wildeveld's characterization, saying that the evidence indicated Maxey only suffered abuse over a "small window" of time.

As for a lack of a criminal history, Owens said he has witnesses that can place Maxey at the earlier robbery. Maxey was the gunman, so it makes sense that his fingerprints weren't at the scene, he said.

Owens asked Gibbons to take into consideration Moore's sentence when sentencing Maxey. That prompted Wildeveld to point out that Maxey has repeatedly apologized for his acts while Moore has never shown remorse -- he has claimed all along he didn't know what his friends were up to.

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com