Court briefs for December 18, 2001

Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.

Thanksgiving feud ended in killing

A Clark County grand jury has indicted a Las Vegas yard sale operator in the slaying of his neighbor during a Thanksgiving Day argument.

David Earl Reed, 61, will now face a murder charge before District Judge Joseph T. Bonaventure and will be arraigned Jan. 3.

Reed is accused of killing Eugene Joseph Cattaneo, 59. The two men allegedly argued because Reed sold items out of his cluttered yard, court documents say.

Reed claims he acted in self-defense after Cattaneo attacked him with a golf club outside their homes in the 1700 block of Golden Arrow Drive near Desert Inn Road and Maryland Parkway.

Reed has been released on $150,000 bail. The grand jury indictment was unsealed Friday.

Plea agreement made in slaying

A Las Vegas man whose murder conviction was overturned in February was sentenced to five to 25 years in prison Monday as the result of a plea agreement.

Richard Johnson, 45, entered the equivalent of a no-contest plea to second-degree murder in the April 1995 death of George Hightower and was sentenced by District Judge John McGroarty Monday.

Johnson was also ordered to pay $5,967 in restitution and given 2,043 days credit for time already served.

Johnson won a new trial in February when the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that his defense attorney should not have been allowed to engage in an insanity defense over Johnson's objections.

Instead of facing a second trial, Johnson opted to take the plea agreement instead.

Man receives six-year term

A 25-year-old Las Vegas man was sentenced to six years in prison Monday in connection with a December 1999 shooting that left the father of a infant boy dead.

Jesus Ramon Gutierrez pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the Dec. 28, 1999, death of Jose Luciano-Gonzales Jr., 26. He also pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance.

Authorities believe Gutierrez opened fire during a bar fight on East Flamingo Road and Gonzales was struck once in the chest.

District Judge Lee Gates ordered Gutierrez to serve two to six years on the trafficking charge and a concurrent one-and-a-half to four years on the manslaughter charge Monday.

The judge ordered those sentences to be served after Gutierrez is done serving a California prison sentence on an aggravated assault charge. He is expected to be paroled on that charge in April.

Man fired over molestation charge

A Las Vegas man who was acquitted on charges that he molested a 13-year-old boy has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

John Brock, who was once the musical director of the church, filed a lawsuit in District Court Monday, claiming the Rev. Ara Guekguezian violated the church's rules and regulations when he fired him in December 1999.

As a result of his termination, Brock says he suffered mental anguish, great harm to his reputation, changes in his financial status and the loss of close associations.

Brock, who is representing himself, is seeking unspecified damages.

Brock was acquitted on charges of sexually assaulting a boy in the congregation over a period of several months in 1998 and 1999. He faced 35 counts, including several counts of sexual assault of a minor, lewdness and solicitation of a minor to engage in acts constituting an infamous crime against nature.

Church officials said this morning that it is church policy not to comment on personnel matters.