Local news briefs for April 25, 2000

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

Police seek help in homicide case

Metro Police are trying to determine the last place a 38-year-old man was seen alive before his body was found in a trash bin Saturday night.

Daniel L. Nichols was apparently beaten and strangled to death and his body tossed into a Dumpster. A man walking in the area of 2575 Westwind Road Saturday about 5:20 p.m. called police after spotting the body.

Investigators are seeking anyone who may have seen Nichols alive or may know where he was living in the Las Vegas Valley.

Nichols also used the names John Forstman, Sean Howell and Kevin Ellison O'Conner. He was originally from California and has family in Texas, police said.

Nichols was convicted of felonies in Washington and Idaho. He was last arrested in Las Vegas on a misdemeanor charge and released from the Clark County Detention Center on Dec. 30, police said.

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call Metro's homicide unit at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.

INS doesn't want jailed aliens freed

Attorneys for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service have asked for a delay in the release of 98 immigrants being held in Las Vegas-area jails while a similar case awaits possible review by a panel of federal judges.

The request is in response to a motion filed last week by the federal public defender's office in Las Vegas, which asked for an immediate hearing to consider releasing the jailed immigrants.

In court records filed Monday, attorneys for the INS said the hearing should be delayed until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reviews a previous ruling by a federal judge in Seattle.

In that ruling, the judge said the INS could not jail an immigrant convicted of a crime and ordered deported for more than 90 days.

An estimated 3,500 immigrants are being held across the country under a 1996 law that requires incarceration and deportation of aliens who commit crimes. But many have remained in jail because they cannot be deported to their native countries.

Comments sought on golf course plan

Henderson residents will be able to comment Wednesday night on a proposal to turn the Henderson landfill, a 145-acre former solid waste site, into an 18-hole public golf course.

"This is a chance for residents and members of the golf community to share their ideas and tell us what they'd like to see in the course, practice facilities and design," said Tracy Novak, superintendent of the Henderson Parks and Recreation Department.

The public meeting is 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Black Mountain Recreation Center, 599 Greenway Road. For more information, call 565-4264.

West Las Vegas project continues

Westside New Pioneers Community Development Corp. broke ground Monday on four new homes in West Las Vegas.

The ceremony marks the continuing efforts by Westside New Pioneers to develop 13 homes between Van Buren and Harrison avenues and F and G streets.

Each home will have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage. The homes will be affordable for families earning roughly $25,000 a year.

The first four homes opened in August.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, City Councilmen Gary Reese and Lawrence Weekly and Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates attended Monday's ceremony.

Public invited to monthly session

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman will hold his monthly open-door meeting with constituents at 10 a.m. Friday.

The meeting will be held in the city clerk's office conference room on the first floor of City Hall due to the ongoing construction in the council chambers.