Invasion victims testify against teen

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

A string of mostly elderly Las Vegas residents slowly made their way to the witness stand Monday during the preliminary hearing of a teenager accused of a string of home invasions and murder.

Although their physical descriptions of the suspect varied, each of the witnesses testified about being awakened in the middle of the night last spring by a young man kicking down their front door.

In almost all of the cases, the intruder -- his face covered with a hankerchief or scarf -- armed himself with a knife from the victim's own kitchen and demanded money.

Two of the victims who testified Monday were physically assaulted -- one was flung onto a couch and the other was punched in the face and dragged into a bathroom.

Prosecutors Teresa Lowry and Doug Herndon believe the young man who carried out the crimes was Justin Porter, 17.

They also believe he is responsible for far more than the handful of home invasions testified about Monday. Over the next couple of days the prosecutors hope to link Porter to several other home invasions, at least six that involved rapes and one, a murder.

Porter is suspected in the shooting death of Gyaltso Lungtok, a 31-year-old former monk whose body was found in his South 10th Street apartment June 10.

Police believe his door had been kicked in.

It will be up to Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle to decide if there is enough evidence to bind Porter over for trial on 48 criminal counts.

Porter's arrest came shortly after police saw him in the downtown area and noticed he looked similar to a police composite of a serial rape and robbery suspect.

Detectives took a DNA sample from Porter's mouth using a cotton swab, and tests reportedly tied the sample to at least two of the rapes.

Lilly Rich, 89, testified she was reading the 23rd Psalm when an intruder broke down her door about 3 o'clock one morning. She said she looked up and saw a black man between 17 and 20 years old standing in her living room with a knife with an eight-inch blade.

"He said give me the money! Give me the money! If you don't give me the money, I'm gonna kill you!" Rich said.

Rich said the intruder rifled through a lock box, jewelry box and pottery jar, taking $70 and three necklace and earring sets.

As he left, Rich said, the intruder told her that her apartment smelled and advised her to go see a doctor.

Rich said she was glad the man didn't "get her," but she wasn't scared.

"I didn't get frightened. I had a man standing between me and him and His name is Jesus," Rich said.

In another case, police believe Porter stabbed a woman, choked her and left her to die after setting her apartment on fire. She was able to escape.

If bound over for trial, Porter will be tried as an adult.