Local briefs for April 18, 2002

Thursday, April 18, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Body found bound in car

Metro Police are investigating the slaying of a man found shot to death in the back seat of a red Plymouth Breeze about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

A motorist noticed a car parked on the side of Lake Mead Boulevard, about six miles east of Hollywood Boulevard, with a rear window broken, Metro Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said.

When the motorist stopped to offer assistance, he noticed the man dead in the car. The victim had numerous gunshot wounds, and his hands were bound behind his back, police said.

The man's name was not released this morning.

Any person with information about this crime is urged to call Secret Witness at 385-5555 or the Metro Homicide Section at 229-3521.

Companion sought in homicide

A man found dead in a Las Vegas motel room has been identified by the Clark County coroner's office as Van Roosevelt Williams.

Metro Police officers found the man dead, an apparent homicid, in a motel room in the 900 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South about noon on April 2.

The man's companion, an older white male with gray hair and a gray beard, and the vehicle they were in, a 1978 blue sedan with California license plates DPA6399, were missing.

Anybody with information about the victim or his companion is asked to call Secret Witness at 385-5555 or Metro's Homicide Section at 229-3521.

Former president takes plea deal

A former Green Valley Little League president suspected of stealing from the league's coffers has entered a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Valerie Adair said Thomas Fico pleaded the equivalent of no contest to a single count of theft Wednesday.

As a result of his plea agreement, Fico must pay back the $17,500 he stole and up to $10,000 in fines.

Fico could receive probation or as much as five years in prison when sentenced by District Judge Donald Mosley June 27, Adair said.

Adair believes the money was stolen from the league between January 1999 and June 1999.

Mother takes her daughters back

A Norwegian who claimed her ex-husband kidnapped their daughters and brought them to the United States flew to Norway with the children Wednesday immediately after winning a favorable court order in Denton, Texas.

Denton County District Court Judge Vicki Isaacks' ruling Wednesday was stayed several hours later by the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth. But by that time, Cisilie Vaile and daughters Kaia, 10, and Kamilla, 7, already had boarded a plane and left.

"The (Texas) case isn't over, but given where she is -- Norway -- it's pretty much over," the mother's lawyer, Mike Gregory, said Thursday.

The children had been living with their father near Denton. Under Isaacks' order, future custody proceedings should be held in Norway.

Isaacks' ruling follows a District Court order Tuesday in Las Vegas and a Nevada Supreme Court decision last week that went against Scotlund Vaile, a U.S. citizen and software engineer.

The mother contended her former husband violated an international treaty designed to halt parental abductions when he took the girls during a supervised visit.

The case had wound up in Nevada because Scotlund Vailes traveled to Las Vegas to get a divorce in 1998.