Court briefs for November 29, 2000

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2000 | 10:28 a.m.

First defendant pleads guilty

One of four men scheduled to go on trial next week in connection with a series of home invasions pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Edward Bonsor, 30, pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of stolen property. Although each count is punishable by a prison sentence of one to five years, prosecutors have said they will not oppose concurrent sentences when District Judge John McGroarty sentences him Jan. 9.

Prosecutors say Bonsor sold many of the items Draketonial Macon, Tyrone Walker and Nahum Brown allegedly stole during four armed home invasions late last year.

New sentence given to Las Vegas man

A Las Vegas man whose first-degree murder conviction was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court earlier this year was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison Tuesday after he entered a plea agreement.

Jose Robert Flores conceded that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of conspiracy to commit murder in the October 1995 death of Francisco Cabral and that the murder was gang-related.

Flores' murder conviction was overturned in August after the Supreme Court ruled that his trial judge erred when he allowed jurors to learn that Flores' co-defendant had been convicted of another, earlier murder. The jurors also learned the same gun had been used in both murders.

Police say that Cabral was shot with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun after he told Flores and Carlos Escobar he was from "L.A." when they walked up to him and asked him where he was from.