Friend of Pope’s dad tells of threat

Bill Gang

Friday, Jan. 28, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

A week before 15-year-old Conan Pope was alleged to have killed his father, the teenager is said to have threatened to shoot the man, according to court records unsealed Thursday.

Mike Elgas told police he was a friend of 62-year-old Frank Pope and spoke a couple of times a month with the man, with the conversation often turning to his children and the problems he was having with Conan Pope.

Elgas recalled the prophetic exchange was revealed as the victim complained "that he was having some problems with (Conan) at home, not paying attention, not listening to him and not doing what he asked him to do."

"He just said, quote, unquote, 'Conan's threatening to shoot me,' " Elgas told police.

The friend said he asked Frank Pope what he meant and was told, "He said he would take one of his guns and shoot me."

"I told him, you know, you need to to get that stuff out of the house," Elgas said.

Police are alleging that Conan Pope used his own gun -- a .357-caliber lever-action Winchester rifle that he had been given for Christmas -- to shoot the man who gave it to him.

In addition to Elgas' statement, the prosecution's case also was bolstered by a new revelation in a statement from the defendant's 16-year-old sister, Desiree.

The girl told police in her 47-page statement she now remembers that her brother "yelled at the top of his lungs, 'You're going to die' ... before any shots are fired."

A moment later, she said, she heard the first shot fired, the rifle cocked again and then a second shot.

Conan Pope then said, "There, you're dead, (expletive)," according to the girl's account of the Jan. 6 incident.

When asked why she didn't reveal her brother's initial statement before, the girl responded "I really, I didn't, I don't want to tell anybody that, because that's like intentional murder and I love my brother to death, but I know I have to tell the truth."

The statements of Elgas and Desiree Pope were included in court documents unsealed Thursday by Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo. The documents were part of the prosecution's motion asking the judge to reconsider his decision to release the boy on house arrest pending his trial.

The motion also included evidence that Pope had solicited sex from another prisoner at the Clark County Detention Center, where he is being held despite his age, pending resolution of the murder charges.

Juveniles charged with murder are automatically certified as adults under Nevada law.

At the request of defense attorneys, the documents were sealed, a hearing on the matter was ordered held behind closed doors and a gag order was issued.

Conan Pope doesn't deny shooting his father but told police after his arrest that he was protecting his sister from their angry father after seeing him marching down the hallway toward her room with a broom in his hand.

Desiree Pope disputes that version of events but doesn't dispute that her father was in the midst of a tirade because he came home from work to find dirty dishes that he had instructed the teenagers to wash.

After smashing the dishes, Frank Pope ordered his children to their rooms and then angrily began cleaning up the mess while continuing "ranting and raving," according to Desiree Pope's statement.

It was a moment later that the fatal shots dropped the man on the kitchen floor amid broken plates and shattered glass. He was lying on top of a broom, and a dustpan was nearby.

The girl said she did not hear her father exchange words with the defendant before the shots were fired.

Desiree said she called 911, and the operator told her to listen to see if the victim was still breathing. She explained how she put down the telephone to follow those instructions. She said when she returned to the phone, the operator had put her on hold.

"You really need to get more operators in there," she told Metro Police Detective Brent Becker during the interview.

The girl said the operator finally returned and told her to feel if any breath was coming out of her father's mouth.

"I did, but it was very faint and hardly none at all," she said. "Basically, what it was was his last breath of air coming out."

While Desiree admitted that her father had a temper and a short fuse, she described him as a loving father who was very religious and pushed his children to get a good education.

She conceded that there had been occasional incidents of physical punishment or contact when the children were younger. She cited a 1997 fistfight between father and son that resulted in the girl calling police, but she denied that any of it reached the level of abuse.

She explained that when her father lost his temper he would send the children to their rooms so he wouldn't take out his anger on them.

Desiree said she has no idea what precipitated the shooting, and when she talked to Conan on the telephone after the incident, he gave no explanation.