News briefs for November 5, 2001

Monday, Nov. 5, 2001 | 9:34 a.m.

Man arrested in hit-and-run

Two pedestrians were killed and one injured Sunday morning by a hit-and-run driver who drove into them while they were crossing the street at Lake Mead Boulevard and Walnut Road, police said.

Lydia Nichols, 48, of Las Vegas and a man whose identification had not been released this morning died at the scene about 4:30 a.m., and 44-year-old Dean Thompson sustained minor injuries, Metro Police said. The driver was not injured.

A pickup was going east on Lake Mead Boulevard in the right lane when it hit the three pedestrians, who were crossing outside a crosswalk, police said.

The driver did not stop and continued driving east on Lake Mead Boulevard, police said.

Gregorio Torres was arrested later at 4262 E. Lake Mead Blvd. after police responded to a reported disturbance at that location. Torres was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on two counts each of felony DUI and felony hit-and-run death, police said.

The crash is still under investigation.

Pilot ID'd as Arizona man

A pilot who died Tuesday in a plane crash at Mount Charleston has been identified by police as Robert Lee Byrd of Parks, Ariz.

The pilot, who was the only one aboard the single-engine Cessna 210 Centurion, was killed when his plane crashed about halfway up Lee Canyon, about 10 miles west of U.S. 95

The plane left Flagstaff, Ariz., Tuesday afternoon and was bound for Reno, but radar contact was lost with the aircraft about 3:15 p.m., said a National Transportation Safety Board investigator.

Federal Aviation Administration officials and the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the accident.

Victim was 76-year-old man

A 76-year-old man who died last week in a traffic accident has been identified as Timothy M. McDonough.

McDonough's car struck a block wall as he was pulling into a parking spot Wednesday afternoon at the downtown post office on Stewart Avenue, Metro Police said.

McDonough was taken to University Medical Center where he died, police said.

McDonough had a possible medical condition that may have contributed to the accident. Police did not elaborate on the possible condition.

Counselor faces trial in sex case

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis decided Friday there is enough evidence to try a former counselor on charges he sexually assaulted a woman he diagnosed with multiple personalities.

Robert William Hough, a former West Valley Counseling Center counselor and pastor at the International Church of Las Vegas, is accused of sexually abusing the 34-year-old woman between February 2000 and May 2000.

The woman says she began seeing Hough shortly after she realized she had been sexually abused as a child, and Hough diagnosed her as having disassociative identity disorder, or split personalities.

She said Hough engaged in sex acts with two of her seven personalities -- a 6-year-old named Sany and Honest, a young woman of an unknown age who was in love with Hough.

Hough is scheduled to be arraigned in District Court Nov. 13.

Second suspect gets five years

A man arrested in connection with the killing last year of a 29-year-old woman at Harrah's was sentenced Friday to two to five years in prison by District Judge Michael Cherry.

Michael Frimmel, 32, pleaded guilty to four counts of burglary in exchange for a number of other charges, including murder, being dismissed.

Frimmel, who has no prior felony convictions and who did not fire the shot that killed the woman, had also been eligible for parole.

Authorities believe Frimmel and Stephen Mullen Jr. were involved in a number of thefts from various casinos in the days leading up to the Sept. 8, 2000, death of the woman, who was a tourist from Hawaii.

Harrah's security guards confronted Mullen and Frimmel that day because they said they recognized them from the earlier thefts.

Frimmel was handcuffed without incident, but Mullen tried to run away and was wrestled to the floor by casino guards. Mullen pulled a gun from his waistband and fired two shots before guards could take the gun, police said.

One of the shots hit Heather Vitarelli, 29, in the back, and the other hit a security guard in the abdomen. The guard survived.

Mullen is serving a 40-year to life sentence for Vitarelli's death and a consecutive term of 16 to 40 years for the attempted murder of the guard.