Maxey gets life in tavern killings

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000 | 10:37 a.m.

A jury has spared the life of a 19-year-old Las Vegas man convicted of killing a bartender and his best friend in a robbery gone awry.

Jurors in the Kenshawn Maxey trial decided Tuesday to give the young man life in prison without the possibility of parole after taking into consideration such things as his age at the time of the murders (17) and the abuse he suffered as a child.

Jurors also noted the death of Maxey's mother when he was 7 years old and his lack of an education.

According to court testimony, Maxey and his best friend, Lashawn Levi, 18, decided to rob the O'Aces Bar and Grill on Rainbow Boulevard in May 1998 in part because Maxey's girlfriend was pregnant and he needed money.

As another friend, Artis Moore, 20, waited in a car, the two men entered the bar with guns and ordered the patrons to get on the floor. Levi went behind the bar to empty the cash register but ended up struggling over his shotgun with bartender Salvatore Zendano.

Maxey testified that a shot rang out, and Levi yelled at him to shoot the bartender. When he did, Zendano was struck and killed by five bullets, and Levi was killed with one shot.

Maxey was arrested as he dragged the wounded Levi outside. Moore fled but was caught and is now serving a no-parole life sentence.

Jurors had sent District Judge Mark Gibbons a note late Monday saying one of them refused to consider anything but the death penalty or a 100-year sentence. The jury also was supposed to consider life with or without the possibility of parole.

Gibbons urged the jurors to keep deliberating Tuesday morning and they returned with the verdict at about 1 p.m.

In a meeting among the jurors, Gibbons, the attorneys and the press afterward, the lone hold-out said the other jurors were able to convince him the mitigating factors of the case outweighed the aggravating factors.

Had the jurors not agreed upon a sentence, the punishment phase of the trial would have been held again before a three-judge panel.