Trial begins in 2 shooting deaths

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Las Vegas man accused of killing two people four years ago.

In addition to facing two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, Darion Lee Daniel, 30, faces two counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary while in possession of a firearm.

If convicted, Daniel could receive the death penalty.

One of the two men who survived the January 1997 shooting, Antoine Hall, testified at Daniel's preliminary hearing in August 1997.

Hall said Daniel came into the apartment at 2717 Searles Ave. with another man and without uttering a word opened fire.

Hall said that when he spotted the 9 mm pistol in Daniel's hand, he dived for cover behind a sofa, but was shot twice before he landed on the floor and "played possum."

Hall said he watched Daniel shoot Fredrick Washington, 24, in the head from no more than a foot away as he sat watching television.

Tehran Woods, 24, the man who had come in with Daniel, according to Hall, had sat down to watch television and was shot in the face twice but survived.

Prosecutors said the shooter ran through the house as he fired at least a dozen bullets.

Mark Payne, 25, was shot in the head and killed in the kitchen at the rear of the apartment.

Sadie Parker, who had been in the kitchen cooking at the time of the early morning attack, escaped harm when she fled through the rear door after the first shots were fired.

Metro Police detectives have said that Daniel told them he thought the men in the apartment were reaching for weapons and he shot everything that was moving.