Key witness in Floyd murder case wants release from jail

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 10:57 a.m.

Seven months pregnant and feeling victimized by prosecutors, the outcall entertainer who is a key witness in the murder case of Zane Floyd is asking to be freed from jail.

She is being held in the Clark County Detention Center as a material witness until Floyd's March trial in the June rampage at an Albertson's supermarket that left four people dead and a fifth seriously wounded.

The 21-year-old woman, who was with Floyd in his home for what she said was a terror-filled hour before the deadly shotgun assault on the store at Valley View Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, now must post a $50,000 bond to gain her freedom.

Her attorney, Chip Siegel, said she has no money and noted that she shouldn't be "in the bizarre position of having to post bail to be free."

The woman "suffered a horrendous sexual assault by the defendant before he started his murderous rampage," Siegel stated in court documents filed Tuesday. "Speculation abounds whether the woman carries the defendant's offspring."

Siegel argued that in jail the woman "cannot receive the necessary counseling that a rape victim deserves." There also are questions about prenatal care and the birth and custody status of her child if she remains behind bars.

Prosecutors, however, want to keep the woman in custody because she left the country once after the incident and then in November reneged on a promise to keep in close contact with authorities.

Siegel offered in his court motion to take a videotaped deposition from the woman to preserve her story should she be unavailable for Floyd's trial. He also said the woman would agree to house arrest.

Prosecutors had asked for permission to take such a deposition early in the case but District Judge Jeff Sobel denied the request, although in a past case he granted a similar request when it came from the witness.

Siegel noted the woman wants to testify at Floyd's trial and her lapses of contact with authorities have never resulted in the trial having to be postponed.

While he concedes that the woman appeared to be unavailable in the fall, she remained in Las Vegas and eventually was arrested on a material witness warrant.

"This hardly suggests an uncooperative witness on the lam," Siegel stated in the motion. A hearing on the request has been set for Monday.

Siegel said that a friend of the woman has offered her housing and agreed to provide whatever transportation is needed for the rape counseling sessions.

"The woman does not seek her unrestricted freedom," Siegel said. "She asks that the state and the court recognize the trauma she has suffered, the physical condition that she is in and the counseling that she needs."

She is considered a key witness because she is the only person who can talk about Floyd's state of mind in the hour before the June 3 shooting at Albertson's, now a Raley's.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Floyd, an ex-Marine and nightclub bouncer whose activities in the market were captured on surveillance videos and who was arrested as he walked from the store carrying his shotgun.

The woman has told authorities that during the time she was raped and threatened by Floyd, he revealed his plan to commit a massacre. She said he showed her his shotgun and 19 shells and told how he intended to kill the first 19 people he saw.

Thomas Michael Darnell, Dennis Troy Sargent, Carlos Chuck Leos and Lucille Alice Tarantino died in the shooting. A fifth employee, Zachary Emenegger, was shot but survived.

Although bail has been set for the release of the woman, District Attorney Stewart Bell said it is unlikely she would be released even if she posted the bond, because Oregon authorities want her on a probation violation for a drug conviction there.

Being placed on house arrest, however, can be considered an extension of her custody in the Clark County Detention Center and provide the limited freedom she wants without risking being returned for criminal proceedings in Oregon.

If she were to be returned to Oregon, her pregnancy likely would prevent her from being able to fly back to Las Vegas for Floyd's trial -- which should occur about the time she is due to give birth.