Slaying suspect convicted on unrelated charges

Kim Smith

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

A Las Vegas man scheduled for trial in May in the slaying of a local teenager was sentenced to life in prison Monday on sexual assault and kidnapping charges in an unrelated case.

Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said District Judge Mark Gibbons gave Alfonzo Jackson, 31, two life terms in connection with a February 1998 incident in which two Las Vegas women were tied up and one was sexually assaulted and robbed.

Jackson pleaded guilty to sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping and possession of a firearm by an ex-felon, Herndon said. Jackson received five years on the firearms count. The robbery count was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

All of the sentences are to run concurrently and Jackson will not be eligible for parole for 10 years, Herndon said. Authorities allege that on Feb. 11, 1998, a woman asked Jackson and a female friend of hers to stay the night in her East Lake Mead Boulevard apartment because she was afraid of a man who lived in the complex who was stalking her.

Sometime during the night, an armed Jackson woke the women, tied them up with shoelaces and stuffed socks in their mouths. One of the women was able to get out of the apartment after being sexually assaulted and began yelling for help, prompting Jackson to run away. He was later arrested at his residence.

Less than a year later, a Clark County grand jury indicted Jackson on kidnapping and murder charges in connection with the July 1997 disappearance of Shavonne Graves, 16.

Graves disappeared after getting off work at a fast-food restaurant and as she was walking to meet Jackson's girlfriend at an Albertson's grocery store.