Judge allows photo lineup in beating trial

Kim Smith

Thursday, April 25, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.

A Clark County judge Wednesday ruled there is nothing wrong with the photos Metro Police homicide detectives showed witnesses in a brutal fatal beating.

As a result, two people who say 19-year-old Usman Sadiq looks like the man they saw pounding Kristopher Gregory to death with bricks on Jan. 7 will be allowed to testify at his August trial.

Sadiq's attorneys, Deputy Special Public Defenders Alzora Jackson and Gloria Navarro, sought to have a photo lineup suppressed, saying the photos used were "suggestive."

According to court documents filed by the attorneys, Sadiq was the only one in the lineup wearing a red and blue jacket like the one witnesses said the attacker was wearing.

The other men pictured in the lineup were either sleeveless or shirtless.

In addition, Sadiq was one of only two men who wore pants as opposed to shorts or underwear in the lineup.

Sadiq was arrested and booked into jail while wearing a royal blue warm-up suit, but his booking photo was not the one used in the lineup, Jackson and Navarro pointed out.

'Instead, Sadiq's appearance was changed for his photo shoot, and he was told to wear his red and blue jacket, which better matched the description given by the witness,' their motion read.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas told Loehrer the photo used in the lineup was taken the day of the slaying. Sadiq wasn't arrested in the warm-up suit until two days later.

Navarro acknowledged Wednesday Sadiq was not required to change. Still, she said, her client should have been allowed to hand over his clothes to detectives and wear other clothing for the lineup photo.

Loehrer said she didn't believe the photos were suggestive and noted that the clothing described in police reports don't even closely match the clothing Sadiq wore in the photo.

As a result, the witnesses must have picked out Sadiq for other reasons besides the clothing, she said.