Guard to return to work after questioning in shooting

Keith Paul

Friday, July 7, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

A Southern Desert Correctional Center officer put on administrative leave after Metro Police questioned him in connection with the slaying of a former prison inmate will be back on the job Monday.

No charges have been filed against the correctional officer in connection with the June 25 shooting death of Stacy L. McLemore outside Cesar's Ringside Bar and Grill on North Rancho Drive, said Howard Skolnik, a Nevada Department of Prisons spokesman.

Since the corrections officer has not been arrested or even named as a suspect there was no reason to not have him return to work, said John Slansky, Department of Prisons assistant director.

"I was the one who put him on administrative leave when we were uncertain about all the circumstances," Slansky said. "He's not been arrested, and I saw no reason not to have him back to work.

"If the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police aren't interested in (him), then I want him back to work."

Citing the ongoing investigation into the shooting, Metro Lt. Wayne Petersen would only say homicide detectives do not have enough evidence to make an arrest of anyone in McLemore's slaying.

Apparently McLemore had a confrontation with a man in another bar earlier in the evening before he was killed.

The corrections officer, whose name was not released, ran into McLemore sometime before the shooting and called his supervisor to inform him of the encounter, Skolnik said.

The officer, who has worked at the Indian Springs prison for about five years, was a corrections officer at the same time McLemore was held at the medium-security prison, Skolnik said.

McLemore, 36, was shot and killed after getting into an argument with a woman outside the bar. The woman apparently slapped McLemore who then punched the woman before a man shot McLemore, police said.

McLemore had an extensive arrest record dating back to 1984 that included arrests for robbery with a deadly weapon, domestic violence, attempted battery and assault with a deadly weapon.