Crime scene analysts describe multiple-killings scene

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

Prosecutors on Monday took care of the nuts and bolts of their case against quadruple murder defendant Richard Powell.

Mel Harmon and L.J. O'Neale questioned a handful of crime scene analysts and lab experts who helped investigate the May 1, 1992, slayings of Samantha Scotti, 24, Lisa Boyer, 26, and Jermaine Woods and Stephen Walker, both 19.

Authorities believe Powell, an alleged drug dealer, killed Scotti because she helped set up a drug buy in 1990 that ultimately led to Powell receiving a seven-year sentence in federal prison.

The others were killed to eliminate witnesses, police allege.

Prosecutors think Powell and a co-defendant picked that fateful day because Metro Police had their hands full quelling rioting after the original Rodney King verdict.

Jurors learned Monday that Woods and Walker were both shot once in the head by either a .38-caliber weapon or a .357 Magnum while Scotti and Boyer were shot multiple times.

Metro Forensic Lab Manager Richard Good Sr. testified that Boyer was shot with a 9 mm weapon and Scotti was shot with both the 9 mm and the other weapon.

Woods and Walker were found in the living room of a Wardelle Street apartment after a 4-year-old eyewitness reported the shootings. Boyer was found in a back bedroom near her crying 18-month-old son. Scotti was found in a bathtub.

The little girl, who lived in the apartment with her mother, told police that a man she knew as "Little Ray" or "Uncle Ray" and a man with "scary eyes" walked into the apartment with "real guns" and killed everyone.

She later identified Powell as "scary eyes" through a photo lineup.

The girl's mother escaped the shootings because she was doing laundry at a boyfriend's house.

Evans was convicted and is on Nevada's death row. Powell, whose trial began Wednesday, also faces the death penalty if convicted.

Deputy Special Public Defenders Lee McMahon and Bret Whipple told jurors during opening statements that Scotti and the other victims had multiple enemies, many of whom were involved in drugs.

The trial resumed this morning before District Judge Michael Douglas.