Judge adds life terms to Floyd penalty

Greg Tuttle

Thursday, Aug. 31, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

Zane Floyd will die in prison, either by lethal injection or old age.

Clark County District Judge Jeffrey Sobel said this morning that sentencing the man who went on a bloody rampage inside a grocery store last year to five life sentences in addition to his death sentence was a "symbolic" gesture, but necessary in light of the crime.

Floyd appeared calm during the brief hearing and refused an opportunity to speak to the judge before he was sentenced.

Floyd, 24, was convicted by a jury last month on 11 charges stemming from the June 3, 1999, crime spree. A week later the same jury sentenced Floyd to death on four counts of first-degree murder.

Floyd also was convicted of four counts of sexual assault and one count of first-degree kidnapping for raping a outcall service dancer inside his home before walking into a nearby grocery store and killing four people with a 12-gauge shotgun. Sobel gave Floyd the maximum sentence of life on each of those charges.

Sobel also sentenced Floyd to 96 to 240 months in prison on a charge of attempted murder.

District Attorney Stewart Bell said the consecutive life sentences will serve as a guarantee that Floyd will never walk free again. The sentences would protect the public from Floyd should the death penalty be abolished in the future, he said.

Sobel agreed, but told Bell he was disturbed at the trial when the attorney described Floyd's crimes as the worst in state history. Sobel said he has presided over several quadruple murder cases, and each was a terrible blow for the community.

"I don't believe this is the worst crime in state history ... but this is right up there at the top," the judge said.

At the trial public defenders Curtis Brown and Doug Hedger described Floyd as an alcoholic and drug addict who suffered from feelings of uselessness and inadequacy. Before the shootings, Floyd lost his job and was forced to move in with his parents, the attorneys said.

On the day of the crimes Floyd suffered an extreme mental or emotional disturbance, the attorneys said.

Floyd told investigators he had always harbored fantasies of rape and murder, and his lust to kill was part of the reason he joined the Marine Corps.

After repeatedly raping the dancer, Floyd walked about a mile to a grocery store and opened fire inside with a 12-gauge shotgun. Killed were Lucy Tarantino, 60, Thomas Darnell, 40, Chuck Leos, 40, and Dennis "Troy" Sargent, 31. Zachary Emenegger, 21, was shot twice but survived.

Floyd surrendered to police at the scene.