Charges in drive-by shooting likely to be dropped

Keith Paul

Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 10:25 a.m.

Charges against two suspects were expected to be dropped today in connection with a drive-by shooting that left a 35-year-old North Las Vegas woman dead as she was attending her sister's wake.

Corey Johnson, 24, would be released from jail upon dismissal of the charges.

The charges against Anthony Hampton, 18, and Joey Clark, 21, were dropped Thursday after prosecutors determined there wasn't enough evidence to go forward with formally charging the men with murder in the killing of Gwendolyn Jones.

Hampton was released from the North Las Vegas jail Thursday. Clark remained in custody on other charges.

A fourth suspect, Jamario Macklin, 16, was still being held this morning in the Clark County jail but the charges were expected to be dropped against him as well. If the charges are dropped he is expected to be transferred to the juvenile jail where he was previously being held on other charges.

North Las Vegas Police detectives are continuing to investigate the shooting and are attempting to find witnesses. Jones and four others were hit by bullets fired out of a car. Jones and the other were gathered at her house for a wake for her sister at the time of the shooting.

Police have said she was not the target of the shooting. The targets may have been others who were standing in the group of people that gathered for the wake, police said.

Police have had other cases come apart once arrests have been made as they are having trouble getting people to come forward in gang-related slayings. There have been 13 gang-related murders this year in an area of town that falls in North Las Vegas Police and Metro Police jurisdictions near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue.