Judge adds four years to sentence in killing

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 10:22 a.m.

A North Las Vegas teenager who killed a young mother in a freak shooting incident two years ago will be spending at least the next 14 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Miguel Cano, 19, was trying to shoot Ismael Ramos Jr. in the back on March 18, 1999, when one of his three shots struck Crystal Ledesma as she was sitting in the drive-through of a fast-food restaurant.

Cano pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November with the understanding that he would receive a life sentence with parole possible after 10 years. The sentence for the attempted murder charge, however, was to be left up to the judge.

On Tuesday, in front of a courtroom packed with family members from both sides, Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane told District Judge John McGroarty he believed Cano should get an extra 10 to 36 years.

After hearing Kane and defense attorneys present their sides, McGroarty gave Cano an extra four to 10 years.

Kane told McGroarty that on the day Ledesma, 24, died, two groups of teenagers were arguing at a McDonald's restaurant on Losee Road. One of the groups left, picked Cano up at his house and drove back to the restaurant.

The fight flared up again, with Ramos being hit with a baseball bat or crowbar and he fled inside the restaurant, basically ending the fight.

Cano then stepped into the doorway and tried to shoot Ramos in the back, Kane said.

Kane said one of the shots went all the way through the restaurant and struck Ledesma as she, her 5-year-old child and a friend were sitting in the drive-through.

Kane argued for the harsher sentence despite Cano's lack of a criminal record and age, noting that the fight had already stopped when he took action. It was not a crime of passion, he said.

Defense attorneys Osvaldo Fumo and Joseph Sciscento insisted Cano acted out of fear and fired the shots toward the ground to scare Ramos. The shot that struck Ledesma ricocheted off the floor, they said.

Cano is the only defendant he has ever had who has asked to meet the victim's family so he could apologize in person and he actually did so, Fumo said.

Sciscento noted that Cano even made a cross out of his blanket threads at the Clark County Detention Center so he could have something to pray to.

After Ledesma's mother, Maria Cogburn, told McGroarty she wanted Cano to die in prison, Cano apologized and said he hoped to someday be forgiven.