Suspect in man’s death wants to withdraw plea

Kim Smith

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 10:23 a.m.

One of three young men responsible for killing a Las Vegas man while stealing his pickup truck is trying to back out of his plea agreement, claiming it was coerced.

District Judge John McGroarty was scheduled to sentence Lamar Alexander Thursday morning, but Alexander filed a last-minute motion asking that he be allowed to fire his attorney and renege on the deal.

Alexander, Jeremy Kelly and Sean Dixon went to Dixon's dad's apartment in June 1996 to steal his truck, but ended up shooting and killing him, too.

Dixon pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of his father, Terry, and was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 40 years. Kelly, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was convicted by a jury on the murder charge and a variety of other crimes. He is serving two consecutive life sentences.

Alexander's attorney, Anthony Sgro, told McGroarty part of the reason Alexander wants to back out of the plea agreement is that a pre-sentence report written by the Department of Parole and Probation names Alexander as the shooter when Kelly has been identified as the actual gunman.

However, Alexander is also claiming he was pressured into pleading guilty to second-degree murder during a meeting with him and Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent, Sgro said.

McGroarty agreed to have the Department of Parole and Probation write a revised pre-sentence report after a hearing into the coercion allegation is held.

McGroarty dismissed Sgro from the case and assigned Robert Lucherini to defend Alexander.