Life sentences close murder case

Kim Smith

Friday, March 31, 2000 | 10:52 a.m.

Two Mesquite residents convicted of killing a 16-year-old Clark High School student for his wheel rims three years ago received two life sentences each Thursday.

Michael Cu, 22, and Joseph Sanchez, 18, were convicted on six kidnapping, murder and robbery charges in connection with the shooting death of Fernando Moreno.

On Thursday, Chief District Judge Lee Gates gave the men life sentences on the kidnapping and murder charges, two five-year sentences on conspiracy charges and two 13-year sentences on the robbery with use of a deadly weapon charges.

While some of the sentences are to be served at the same time, it will be a minimum of 40 years before the men are eligible for parole.

Moreno's mother, Maria, pleaded with Gates through a Spanish-speaking interpreter to make sure the men never walk the streets again.

"Mr. Judge I would like to tell you these people, I don't want them to be free," Maria Moreno said. "There's a lot of people outside, a lot of mothers outside ... I'm afraid because I have more children."

A man training homing pigeons near Interstate 15 and the Ute Road exit about 30 miles northeast of Las Vegas found Moreno's bullet-ridden body on Oct. 3, 1996. An autopsy revealed that the boy had been shot seven times with a high-powered rifle. The fatal shot was fired at almost point-blank range into Moreno's head.

Moreno's parents had reported him missing when he did not return after going out to run some errands in his 1988 Toyota Celica. Police were unable to find his car anywhere near the murder scene, and for more than two years they had few leads to go on.

Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neal said a break in the case came when a young woman told police two men she knew were involved in a murder were threatening friends of hers.

The police investigation led to a man who testified that around the time of the murder he helped Cu and Sanchez remove the rims of a car he assumed they had stolen, O'Neal said. It turned out the man had a holy card in his wallet that Maria Moreno later identified as her son's.

The man also testified that he helped burn Moreno's car in the desert.

In asking for the life sentences, O'Neal showed Gates a photograph of the crime scene and the cross erected by Moreno's family.

"Except for their memories, it's all that's left of that young man," O'Neal said.

"This crime was committed to steal the rims off his car, the one material item he had above what he needed to go to school and to work," O'Neal said.

Moreno was a busboy at the Boomtown hotel-casino.

Sadly, the rims didn't even fit the defendants' car, he said.

Defense attorney Kirk Kennedy asked Gates not to consider giving Cu a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Up until October 1996, Cu had never been accused of a violent crime and his criminal history at that point was "negligible."

Sanchez's attorney, Drew Christensen, said the evidence showed that Cu was the actual shooter. He also pointed out that Sanchez was only 15 at the time of the incident and it would be unfortunate for Gates to "throw away the key" forever because of "youthful misunderstandings and youthful misassociations."

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com