Assault of victim, 85, draws six life terms

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 10:51 a.m.

After being released from jail on a minor charge, 19-year-old Larry Dewayne Brooks walked around a Las Vegas neighborhood knocking on doors until an elderly woman opened hers.

Brooks barged in and robbed and sexually assaulted the 85-year-old woman before tying her to an ironing board with electrical wire and stealing her car.

The teenager won't get a chance to do something like that again.

District Judge Jeff Sobel on Tuesday sentenced Brooks to six life terms and other time that will make it impossible for the defendant to even be eligible for parole for more than 55 years.

And there is more trouble waiting in the wings because he still must face charges that while in jail for attacking the woman, he tried to hire a hitman to kill a prosecutor and the victim.

Brooks apologized to his victim and assured her and Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry that he does not want to hurt them.

The victim told the judge how the April attack has left her afraid and unable to get on with her life.

She urged a sentence that would prevent Brooks from terrorizing anyone else in the future and "to make him suffer as much as I've suffered."

That prompted Brooks to laugh.

Moments later he asked the judge for leniency, explaining that he was suddenly homeless because of his jail stay and committed the robbery because, "I was scared and wanted to get home to my people."

Defense attorney Peter S. Christiansen argued to the judge that a sentence keeping Brooks behind bars for 20 years was sufficient because even some first-degree murderers can be eligible for parole after serving 20 years.

Deputy District Attorney Greg Knapp said that would require running the sentences for some crimes concurrently -- or at the same time -- and Brooks shouldn't be allowed "to buy one and get one free."

"He doesn't deserve the blue-light special. He deserves the maximum," Knapp said.

"If a teenager sexually assaults an octogenarian, 20 years is not enough," Sobel agreed, calling the crime "horrible and bizarre."

Brooks stood trial in mid-December and a jury took only 10 minutes to convict him of all five charges.

"I know it's Christmas week, but this is a real, breathing, walking, talking human being's life," Christiansen urged the jury during closing arguments in the trial. "Mull it over."

But the jury decided the case wasn't all that complicated and the evidence was overwhelming. There was the compelling testimony of the victim and evidence that Brooks confessed much of his involvement to police.

Brooks had demanded the victim's ATM card, threatening to kill her if she didn't comply, according to the testimony. When the woman defiantly responded that she could only die once, the man took $40 in cash and the keys to her car.

Before he left, the woman testified, he pulled up her shirt and assaulted her and then bound her hands and feet to an ironing board.

She freed herself after a few minutes and called police, who captured Brooks an hour later in her car near Sahara Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.

Lowry said he was carrying the exact amount of cash that was stolen from the victim and in the same denominations the woman said she lost -- a new $20 bill and two $10s.

When interviewed by police, Brooks said he bought the car from "a crack head," but he eventually admitted his involvement in the robbery.