Jury selection begins in Stratosphere slaying

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 10:40 a.m.

Jury selection began Monday for a man charged in the May 2000 slaying of a tourist at the Stratosphere.

Prosecutors allege Val Stallworth helped Jamie Shuey kill Kentucky resident Stephen Nally. Shuey's trial is scheduled for Dec. 17.

Nally's bound and gagged body was found in his hotel room May 29, 2000.

Stallworth and Shuey were arrested after a check of security videotapes showed that no one but them and Nally had entered the room between May 26 and 29.

Stallworth, 46, was released from prison in November 1998. According to court records, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a charge of robbery with use of a deadly weapon on Dec. 21, 1978. He also received a 10-year burglary sentence that was to be served concurrently.

At the time, Stallworth was using the name Starworth and had been arrested in a series of hotel robberies in Las Vegas.

Shuey, 23, and Stallworth have also been charged with burglary, kidnapping and robbery in the May 15, 2000, robbery at the Travelodge Motel, 2830 Las Vegas Blvd. South. He could face the death penalty.

A couple staying at the motel were tied up with torn bedsheets and robbed of credit cards, cash and a cellular phone.

Police said they suspected Shuey and Stallworth in the robbery after they were arrested in Nally's death, and police realized the crimes were strikingly similar.

They are scheduled to be tried in that case next year.