Pair dropped from murder charge

Kim Smith

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 10:06 a.m.

A North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace dismissed a murder charge against two of five men accused of shooting a rival gang member in March, after the state's sole eyewitness recanted a portion of her testimony.

Pamela Neal, 31, originally told police that Louis Matthews, 19, and Jeremy Webb, 16, were among those who killed Joseph "Doughboy" Williams, 26. However, during a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Neal said she couldn't say for certain whether they were involved.

Matthews and Webb were arrested in May along with Ashley Bennett, 27, Anthony Gantt, 17, and Lailoni Morrison, 21, after Neal came forward with information about Williams' death.

All five are alleged gang members, and Williams, who was shot 16 times with four different weapons, was reputed to be a member of a rival gang.

The five men and Antwan Graves, 21, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder with use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.

Police are still looking for Graves, but the five others appeared before North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.

At the beginning of the hearing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot said he was no longer pursuing the conspiracy counts, leaving Dahl to decide whether the five should be tried on murder counts and if those murder counts should include the gang enhancement.

Koot also announced that he was dropping five felony counts against Neal. Those counts alleged that Neal and an unidentified man forced their way into an alleged gang member's house in April, accidentally shooting a 6-year-old girl in the chin in the process.

The pair apparently believed the alleged gang member, Antonio Looney, was responsible for the shooting death of Erik Bass, Neal's cousin.

Looney, 28, and DeTwan Harvey, 21, were arrested and charged with murder in Bass' death June 1.

According to police, Bass was friends with members of two rival gangs, and prosecutors allege Neal wanted Looney to answer questions about her cousin's death, which occurred just hours before.

Koot tried to convince Dahl to close the hearing during Neal's testimony, noting her reluctance to testify for fear of retaliation. Dahl denied Koot's request, noting that everyone in the packed courtroom probably already knows who she is.

The dismissal of Neal's charges prompted each of the defense attorneys to question Neal's truthfulness.

That line of questioning and their attempts to get Neal to identity neighbors who may have seen the shooting prompted several outbursts from Neal, who came to court wearing shorts and a hot pink bandana over her hair.

Neal stopped her testimony several times, going so far as to encourage the judge to throw her in jail.

Neal insisted she wasn't testifying as part of a deal with prosecutors. She said that because of her cousin's death five weeks after Williams was killed she knows what his family is going through.

When asked by Koot why she was testifying, Neal replied, "Because it's what's right. It's what's right. I can feel their pain."

When Morrison's attorney, David Schieck, tried to get Neal to identify other potential witnesses, Neal remained defiant as tears rolled down her face.

"It's enough I'm in this," the mother of four said. "I got to watch my back, my kids' back."

Koot objected to Schieck's questions, noting the police already have the names of at least three others. He then named them.

However, Dahl insisted that Neal answer Schieck's question or face jail time. After several moments of loud bickering among the parties, Neal named two of the three Koot mentioned.

Neal identified Morrison, Gantt and Bennett as Williams' shooters and Dahl bound them over for trial on open murder charges. However, he said the state lacked enough evidence to show the slaying was gang-related.

Graves, the sixth man accused in the shooting, was not mentioned during the hearing. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Morrison, Gantt and Bennett will be arraigned by District Judge Mark Gibbons June 19.