4-year-old girl describes killings

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000 | 10:26 a.m.

A 4-year-old girl took center stage Tuesday, albeit by video, in the capital murder trial of Richard Powell.

Powell is accused of first-degree murder in the 1992 deaths of four Las Vegas residents. On Tuesday jurors listened and watched closely as a child psychologist tried to coax details of the slayings out of the sole witness -- a 4-year-old girl with pigtails and a short attention span.

Psychologist Maria Cardel had used drawing paper, a doll house, pictures and hand puppets during two interviews to elicit details police needed to solve the case.

The first interview took place four days after Samantha Scotti, 24, Lisa Boyer, 24, Jermaine Woods and Stephen Walker, both 19, were killed.

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

The others were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, police said.

Powell's co-defendant, Vernell "Little Ray" Evans, was convicted in 1994 and is now on death row. If convicted, Powell, too, faces a death sentence.

Just minutes into the first interview, the child was shown a picture of Scotti to identify. The girl quickly piped up "Guess what? Samantha got killed!"

When asked how, she replied "Ray."

Although she tended to ignore questions or get off the subject -- at certain points the girl began talking about her grandparents and the smell of the magic markers -- Cardel again and again drew the girl back to the events of that night.

She told Cardel that she saw Scotti shot while standing in the bathtub and blood got all over. Later she contradicted herself and said she didn't see the "boom booms," she only heard them.

After helping Cardel draw a picture of Little Ray, the girl told the psychologist that a "bigger man" with "scary eyes" and a gun should be in the picture too.

When asked if she knew his name, the girl talked about how the "big guy broke" her house with a gun.

Prosecutors have said the girl later identified Powell as the man with "scary eyes" in a photo lineup and at his federal drug trial.

As she added pink and red marker to the picture of Scotti in the tub, the girl told Cardel that "me and Samantha got scared."

During the second interview about six weeks later, the girl provided more details in a more narrative form.

She again described watching Scotti being shot by Little Ray, going so far as to describe how the fingers of one of her hands were blown off.

She also told Cardel that "Crook" and Jermaine "got dead" in the living room first, but she swiftly changed the subject when asked how she knew that, if she saw them die and if anyone else in the apartment died.

The girl had no problem telling Cardel what happened after the shooting stopped.

"I ran over to Patty's house and I told her to call police," the girl said.

"What did you tell her? Cardel asked.

"They got dead," the girl replied.