News briefs for December 12, 2001

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

Driver pleads in wife's death

A 60-year-old Las Vegas man has pleaded guilty in a drunken driving accident that resulted in the death of his wife.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure will sentence Allen Alderman to 12 to 30 months in prison on Jan. 15 as a result of a plea agreement Alderman entered Tuesday.

Alderman pleaded guilty to one count of reckless driving and to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence, his second in less than two years.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson said Allen Alderman was driving on U.S. 93 near Boulder City Sept. 21 when he lost control of his car, causing it to roll several times. Alderman's wife, Peggy, was killed when she was partially ejected from the vehicle.

Nelson said the case was resolved through a plea agreement because a passenger in the vehicle told authorities Peggy Alderman was suicidal and grabbed the wheel from her husband just before the crash.

Las Vegas man convicted

A 36-year-old Las Vegas man faces multiple life sentences after being convicted Tuesday in a double homicide.

Jurors found Gustavo Cumplido guilty on two counts of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon, one count of attempted murder and two counts of discharging a weapon out of a vehicle.

Cumplido was convicted in the February 1999 shooting deaths of Eloy Numez, 17, and Carlos Lopez, 20.

The 36-year-old told jurors that on Feb. 20, 1999, someone shot at his house for the second time in four days. He said he jumped into a truck with two of his teenage sons and two family friends to chase the gunmen.

Cumplido told police he fired on the victims' Nissan pickup once with his .12 gauge shotgun after seeing a passenger reach for what he thought was a weapon.

Federal money expected for LV

A new $3 million public health laboratory for Las Vegas is tucked inside a $318 billion Senate defense appropriations bill.

The bill passed the Senate Tuesday and faces a joint congressional conference committee before going to President Bush for his signature.

Woman killed on Boulder Highway

Henderson Police are investigating a fatal accident on Boulder Highway near Broadbent Boulevard Tuesday morning.

The accident happened about 10 a.m., when Isobel M. Richardson-Griego, 74, attempted to drive a Honda sedan across Boulder Highway from Sky Forest Drive, police said.

The Honda was struck by a Chevrolet pickup headed north on Boulder Highway, police said. Richardson-Griego died at the scene, and the driver of the pickup was uninjured.

Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call police at 565-8933 or Secret Witness 385-5555.

Bike collides with turning truck

A Las Vegas woman died Tuesday at University Medical Center after she crashed the motorcycle she was riding while trying to avoid a truck, which was making a U-turn in North Las Vegas over the weekend.

Susan Kay Cerul, 45, was headed northbound in the 3300 block of North Decatur Boulevard when a Ford truck attempted to make a U-turn in front of her, North Las Vegas Police said.

Cerul swerved to avoid the truck and struck the median. Cerul was thrown 262 feet by the impact, and suffered a critical head injury.

Man struck while crossing highway

A 49-year-old pedestrian killed as he tried to cross Boulder Highway early Sunday has been identified as Michael Ferrell.

Ferrell apparently tried to run across Boulder Highway just north of Desert Inn Road about 12:15 a.m. Sunday. He was taken to University Medical Center and died a short time later, Nevada Highway Patrol officials said.

Pedestrian error appears to be the cause of the accident, but the investigation is continuing, officials said.

Abraham confirms Jan. 7 visit

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has confirmed a Jan. 7 visit to the Nevada Test Site, where a proposed National Center for Combating Terrorism could be operating within weeks.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., spearheaded efforts to draw the attention of Department of Energy officials to the remote and available Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Abraham "will see for himself that the Test Site could be ready in weeks, not months or years, to train thousands of additional police, fire and rescue workers on how to protect America from any future attack on our homeland," Reid said Tuesday.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who met with Reid and Abraham on Nov. 15, said the new project, which would be funded by the Department of Defense, could bring high-paying jobs to the state.

Experiment delayed one day

A subcritical experiment scheduled for today at the Nevada Test Site has been delayed for one day.

The National Nuclear Security Administration's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, sponsor of the experiment Oboe 7, delayed the test due to operational support issues, a prepared statement said.

Oboe 7 is the eighth and final subcritical experiment in the Lawrence Livermore series.

The experiments use small amounts of radioactive materials combined with high explosives, but the tests do not create a nuclear chain reaction.

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