Judges deliver death penalty

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 10:14 a.m.

A panel of three judges decided Tuesday that a Las Vegas man should die for shooting and killing two men nearly four years ago.

The judges ruled that a handful of mitigating circumstances in the Darion Daniel case don't outweigh the fact he killed more than one person and he did so to avoid being arrested.

A Clark County jury took less than six hours in August to reject Daniel's claim that he killed Fred Washington, 24, and Mark Payne, 25, in self-defense.

The jury convicted Daniel of two counts of first-degree murder. They also convicted Daniel of two counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.

Daniel's conviction and sentence will automatically be appealed. He will be sentenced for the other crimes on Nov. 15.

Deputy District Attorneys Christopher Lalli and Robert Daskas alleged Daniel, 30, walked into a downtown apartment in January 1997 and opened fire on a group of friends watching TV.

Washington died on the couch and Payne was killed as he ran through the kitchen trying to escape. Antoine Hall and Tehran Woods, 24, were shot several times, but survived.

Daniel reportedly tried to shoot a fifth person, Sadie Parker, but missed as she ran outside.

The prosecutors presented evidence that Daniel was either upset with his friends because they wouldn't give him $10 for drugs or he believed Washington had killed a friend of his.

Defense attorneys JoNell Thomas and Robert Langford tried to persuade jurors that Daniel acted in self-defense after Washington pointed a weapon at him and Hall lunged for him.

Because the jury could not reach a unanimous decision about Daniel's sentence, District Judges Donald Mosley of Clark County, Bill Maddox of Storey County and Lyon County's Robert Estes heard testimony from both sides and rendered a decision.

The judges agreed that the mitigating circumstances in the case included Daniel's peaceful surrender to police, his stable marriage and his lack of a violent past leading up to the murders.