Jurors weigh fate of suspect in 4 slayings

Greg Tuttle

Friday, June 9, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

Clark County District Court jurors in the Donte Johnson quadruple murder trial are deciding today if the Las Vegan is a "cold-blooded" killer who could face the death penalty or a man wrongly accused.

Jury deliberations began late Thursday and continued this morning at Johnson's trial for the execution slayings of four people at a Terra Linda Avenue home.

Matthew Mowen, 19, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 22, and Peter Talamantez, 17, were found bound at the hands and feet with duct tape and each shot once in the back of the head on Aug. 14, 1998.

Johnson is accused of being the triggerman and could face the death penalty if convicted. Two other men, Terrell Young and Sikia Smith, are serving life sentences without parole following their convictions last year at separate trials.

Johnson is charged with four counts of murder, four counts of robbery, four counts of kidnapping and one count each of burglary and conspiracy. The trial began Monday.

Prosecutors allege the four were killed during a robbery that netted $240 cash, a VCR, a Sony play station and a pager.

During closing arguments Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Robert Daskas said Johnson and his two partners went to the home believing they would find $10,000 in cash and drugs. Instead, they left behind four dead bodies, he said.

The victims "died for nothing," Daskas said.

Johnson's public defender, Joe Sciscento, told jurors the wrong man was on trial. Testimony from at least one witness, he said, pointed to a different killer.

"Tod Armstrong should be sitting in that chair," Sciscento said as he pointed to Johnson.

Armstrong was a friend of Mowen's who, according to a witness, told Johnson and the others about a large amount a cash and drugs at the Terra Linda home. But Armstrong was not charged in connection with the murders.

Sciscento said jurors should not convict Johnson of murder and the other charges because he's an admitted drug dealer with a criminal history. Prosecutors failed to prove that Johnson committed these murders, he said.

The evidence is "all around him, but not on him," Sciscento said.

Before closing arguments, prosecutors called several last witnesses, including a DNA expert who said blood found on Johnson's pants came from one of the victims. Semen found on the zipper of the pants also came from Johnson, Metro crime lab analyst Thomas Wahl told jurors.

Johnson did not testify and his defense rested without calling a witness.