Plea deal expected in hitman case

Kim Smith

Tuesday, July 11, 2000 | 11 a.m.

A Las Vegas man who is serving six life sentences and is scheduled to go to trial later this month for allegedly hiring a hitman to kill a prosecutor is on the verge of taking a deal.

Larry Brooks, 19, was convicted and sentenced to six life terms in December for robbing and sexually assaulting an 85-year-old woman. Authorities allege that just before trial he offered an undercover officer $5,000 to kill the victim and Chief Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry.

The undercover officer had gone to visit Brooks after Brooks' cellmate told police that Brooks had spoken about arranging the deaths of the victim and Lowry.

On Monday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Thomas Carroll told District Judge Mark Gibbons that they needn't finish an evidence suppression hearing scheduled for that afternoon because of a potential deal.

Carroll said Brooks has agreed to plead guilty to getting into a jailhouse fight in exchange for the solicitation to commit murder charge being dismissed.

Gibbons scheduled a status hearing in the case for July 19.

After the hearing Carroll said there were two reasons Brooks was offered a plea agreement. The first is that he received such a lengthy sentence in the sexual assault case it made no sense to pursue additional time. The second is that although the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't require undercover officers to advise prisoners of their Miranda rights, the Nevada Supreme Court does.

Monday's hearing was to focus on whether the taped conversations among the undercover officer, the cellmate and Brooks should be allowed into evidence. Defense attorney Peter Christiansen believed they should not have been allowed because of the Nevada Supreme Court's stance on the issue.

Carroll said he believes whatever sentence Brooks gets in the battery case will run at the same time as the life sentences.