Defendant says he feared being killed

Kim Smith

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

A Las Vegas man accused of killing one of his neighbors last year told jurors he was seen running from the crime scene because he thought he might be the killer's next target.

Wednesday was the third day of Brent Sheridan's trial in the Nov. 15, 1999, shooting death of Harriet Jennings-Chapin, a 42-year-old mother of three.

Prosecutors allege Sheridan, 47, shot Jennings-Chapin five times because his landlord had failed to evict her based on his belief that Jennings-Chapin was a prostitute or drug dealer.

Jennings-Chapin was found dying in the courtyard of the Warren Motel Apartments Nov. 15, 1999, and several people reported seeing Sheridan running from the murder scene.

Sheridan testified Wednesday he ran after he heard the shots because he was scared.

Sheridan told jurors that he made a great many enemies while living at the Strip property because he often chased away vagrants, drug dealers and prostitutes from the area.

The former Missouri resident testified that after he moved into the apartment complex he quickly realized it was a "dangerous crime area."

As a result, Sheridan said, he purchased a $250 spotlight for the parking lot, bought a hand-held police scanner and "only" four handguns.

"I thought the whole city might be dangerous so until I could prove otherwide I wanted guns for personal protection," Sheridan said.

Sheridan said he would regularly hold the scanner and yell at vagrants from his balcony, believing the scanner might lend him some credibility.

After hearing the shots on Nov. 15, Sheridan said he ran in the opposite direction, stopping momentarily to remove the sweatshirt he was wearing. He thought the shooter might identify him from it, he explained.

He then kept going until he got to the quiet desert area where police arrested him a short time later, Sheridan said.

Sheridan told Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane there was gunpowder on the sweatshirt because he often wore it while target practicing. As for the Halloween mask found inside it, Sheridan said he often wore one because it proved to be effective in scaring away the more drunken vagrants.

Kane asked Sheridan if he was trying to avoid a potential killer, why did he hide in a dark desert lot instead of in the middle of the most populous street in the United States?

"I was trying to evade the perpetrator, not pedestrians," Sheridan answered.

Kane also asked Sheridan if he ever told anybody he had been considering killing "homosexuals, fat women" and various people who cut in front of him in traffic, whether pedestrians or motorists.

Sheridan initially said he couldn't imagine who he would have said that to. He then admitted he spoke with a psychiatrist about such things in 1992.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating this afternoon, after closing arguments.