News briefs for September 4, 2001

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001 | 10:44 a.m.

Last of four suspects in NLV slaying released

Charges have been dropped against the last of four suspects in the May 25 death of a North Las Vegas woman shot during a wake.

Jamario Macklin, 16, was released from the Clark County Detention Center Saturday after charges in connection with the slaying of Gwendolyn Jones were dropped.

Charges had already been dropped against Anthony Hampton, 18, Joey Clark, 21, and Corey Johnson, 24, after prosecutors determined there wasn't enough evidence to go forward with formally charging the men with the Jones' slaying.

Jones, 35, and four others were hit by bullets fired out of a car as they gathered in front of Jones' home for a wake. North Las Vegas Police are continuing to investigate the shooting and are trying to find witnesses.

Two-car wreck kills woman in Henderson

No charges are expected to be filed in a two-vehicle accident that killed one woman and injured another Friday.

The accident happened about 1 p.m. at the intersection of Green Valley Parkway and Pebble Road, when a Mercedes tried to turn from northbound Green Valley onto Pebble and collided with a minivan, police said.

The driver of the Mercedes, 74-year-old Dolores Chavez of Henderson, died at the scene. Her passenger, a 70-year-old woman, was flown to University Medical Center and was listed in good condition this morning.

The driver of the minivan was not injured.

Detectives investigate human remains found near Jean

Metro Police homicide detectives are investigating human remains found off Interstate 15 just north of Jean on Friday.

A skull was found about 10 a.m. by a Nevada Department of Transportation worker, and detectives later located scattered skeletal remains near the skull, homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said.

Detectives say that the bones could have been in the desert for several months. The age and gender of the remains, as well as the cause of death, are undetermined, police said.

Man charged in slaying in mobile home park

Metro Police have arrested a man in connection with a Sunday stabbing death in a mobile home park.

Christopher Taylor Smith, 45, was arrested about five hours after the stabbing, and has been charged with murder with a deadly weapon, police said.

Police got a 911 call about 1:30 a.m. reporting a man had been stabbed behind a mobile home at the Desert Paradise Mobile Home Park, 4070 Las Vegas Blvd. North. A 38-year-old man was found stabbed to death in the park, police said.

Investigators learned that the victim had been involved in an ongoing argument with Smith, and police say that the victim was sitting in Smith's back yard when Smith came out of the mobile home and started stabbing the victim.

Smith was found about 6 a.m. in a nearby wash and was arrested, police said.

The name of the slain man was not released this morning pending positive identification and notifying his family.

Woman crashes into patrol car, arrested on drug charges

A woman wanted on drug charges fled from police only to be caught after she crashed into the front of a police car Thursday.

Gloria Jean Lee, 51, was arrested by the local Criminal Apprehension Team Thursday about 4:25 p.m. on charges of trafficking in cocaine, sales of cocaine and ex-felon in possession of a firearm warrants, as well as a charge of evading police, police said.

Members of the apprehension team, made up of detectives from local police departments and federal agents, tried to arrest Lee at her job in the 3200 block of East Flamingo Road, but she slipped out the back door and into her car.

Lee led them on a low-speed chase to an apartment complex in the 3800 block of South Nellis Boulevard. Lee drove around the complex until she crashed into a police car as she was trying to go around it, police said.

Pilot error cited in 1999 wreck in yard of LV home

The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that a steep turn at a low altitude resulted in a stall that caused a plane to crash into the front yard of a Las Vegas home in 1999, killing two of the three people on board.

The Mooney M20E crashed on Aug. 20, 1999, as it was preparing to land at the North Las Vegas Airport.

Kenneth Horne, 55, and his wife, Gwen, 52, died in the plane that came down in a yard near Torrey Pines Drive and Cheyenne Avenue. A third man in the plane, John Trivett, then 42, was pulled from the burning plane and saved by an off-duty Metro Police officer.

The Hornes and Trivett were flying back to Las Vegas from Reno after attending U.S. Open Chess Championship in Reno.