Court briefs for November 3, 2000

Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 | 10:46 a.m.

Powell murder verdict is awaited

Jurors began their third day of deliberations this morning in the Richard Powell quadruple murder case.

Powell is accused of first-degree murder in the May 1, 1992, shooting deaths of Samantha Scotti, 24, Lisa Boyer, 26, and 19-year-olds Jermaine Woods and Stephen Walker.

Prosecutors allege Powell and Vernell "Little Ray" Evans Jr. shot Scotti to death because she set up a drug buy with undercover police officers that eventually led to Powell serving a seven-year federal prison sentence.

The other three, prosecutors contend, were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Defense attorneys told jurors that Evans, who is on Nevada's death row, killed Scotti and the others with the help of Brian "Clay" Hardy, whom Scotti also set up for police.

The jury began deliberating at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Man found guilty again in killing

A Las Vegas man whose first-degree murder conviction was tossed out by the Nevada Supreme Court was again convicted Thursday.

A Clark County jury took just five hours Thursday to convict Anthony Petty of first-degree murder in the September 1997 death of Ray Watts.

Petty has opted to have District Judge Mark Gibbons sentence him on Dec. 15 instead of a jury. He could get a no-parole life sentence.

According to police, Petty shot Watts when Watts demanded Petty give him a pair of pants that Petty was packing as he prepared to leave Las Vegas.

Watts was shot six times.

The Supreme Court ordered the second trial after ruling that the first trial judge erred when he didn't allow defense attorneys to present evidence that Watts was a violent man.