Judge throws out all but one charge in horse shooting case

Sandra Chereb

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 2:09 a.m.

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. - A judge today threw out all but one charge against the three men accused of slaughtering wild horses just east of Reno more than a year ago.

District Judge Michael Griffin's ruling deals a serious blow to Storey County prosecutors' case against the three former high school buddies from Reno who had been charged with shooting more than two dozen horses.

Responding to a series of defense motions, he decided they can be tried in the death of only one of the horses.

Anthony Merlino, 21, and two former Marines, Darien Brock, 21, and Scott Brendle, 22, were accused of shooting the horses in the hills east of Reno in December 1998. They admitted they shot at one horse, but denied any other involvement.

The judge said there was no ballistics evidence to link any of the men's guns to the shell casings found at the scene. He said their own admissions were the only thing that linked them to the case at all.

"Without the admission of the defendants you have no case," Griffin told the prosecutors.

Deputy Storey County District Attorney Sharon Claassen said her office will decide within a week whether to appeal Griffin's ruling.

The three men are scheduled to go to trial next month.

But the judge said prosecutors will have to amend their complaint and specify exactly what each of the men did to the one horse remaining in the case, known as horse No. 12.

The one remaining gross misdemeanor charge accuses each of maiming or killing another person's animal. They originally were charged will killing 34 horses.

The gross misdemeanor carries a maximum penalty of up to one year in a county jail and a $2,000 fine. If convicted of the original charges, the three men had faced up to 10 years in prison.

Scott Freeman, a lawyer for Merlino, said the judge acknowledged what they have been arguing all along - that somebody else shot the horses. He said the three men arrived on the scene after most of the horses were already dead.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Freeman said today.

The three men admitted they shot at horses and killed one in the area on the night of Dec. 27, the first day authorities began discovering the string of carcasses in a canyon just east of Reno within a mile of Interstate 80.

Brendle also confessed to spraying one already-dead horse with a fire extinguisher. But all three denied any involvement in a mass killing.

The shootings outraged animal activists across the country and resulted in the two Marines - Brendle and Brock - being given the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge.

A young colt and a mare giving birth were among the horses found dead in December. Some of the wounded horses wandered for days before authorities chased them down and destroyed them.