Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 | 11:22 a.m.
A man gunned down last week in a gang-style drive-by shooting faced murder charges last year in a North Las Vegas slaying, but he was set free when prosecutors dropped the charges.
Thomas Sterling, 20, was killed along with Reginald Slaughter, 18, last Wednesday while they were in a car stopped at a red light on Martin Luther King Boulevard at Lake Mead Boulevard when a Jeep Cherokee pulled up and a passenger fired an assault rifle into the car. Metro Police suspect the killings were gang-related because of the method of the slaying.
Just about this time in August last year, prosecutor Robert Daskas stood in a Clark County courtroom dropping murder charges against Sterling in the February 2001 shooting death of 21-year-old Ricky Chiles Jr. in North Las Vegas.
"We couldn't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, but did we believe Sterling was responsible for the killing? Absolutely," said Daskas, a Clark County deputy district attorney. "Things just have a way of working themselves out."
Detectives haven't made any arrests in the recent slaying but don't believe it was retaliation for Chiles' slaying.
"I think they were in the opposite gang and that made them the targets," said Sgt. Kevin Manning of Metro's homicide unit.
North Las Vegas Police Detective Michael Bodner, who investigated the Chiles slaying, said he also doesn't believe Sterling's killing was directly related to Chiles' murder.
The area around the slaying last week is right in the middle of territory bordering Metro and North Las Vegas Police's jurisdiction and has been the scene of more than 15 gang-related killings in the past 18 months.
But retaliation killings are nothing new between the two warring gangs in the area. On July 22, 2001, 19-year-old Vernon Craft was gunned down in what police said was an apparent retaliation for a shooting the previous day.
Craft had been charged with murder a few weeks after the July 7, 2000, slaying of 19-year-old Derrick Mitchell. In March 2001, the murder charges were dismissed.
Police have been frustrated at times as charges are dismissed against gang members accused of the violence that has gripped the area.
Daskas said in Chiles' murder case, his girlfriend was the sole witness to the shooting that occurred when a man walked up to Chiles as he got out of a car and shot Chiles.
"There were some discrepancies," Daskas said. "We had to dismiss the case because we believed we could not prove to 12 jurors his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."
But Bodner was adamant in his belief Sterling was responsible for Chiles' death.
"We wouldn't have arrested him if there was any doubt," he said.
There was some confusion at first if the Thomas Sterling killed was indeed the Thomas Sterling accused of the 2001 murder. Apparently there was another person in the area who used Sterling's name.
Bodner said he knew Sterling from the North Las Vegas murder investigation and saw a picture of the man recently killed. He said it was indeed the Sterling he had arrested for the Chiles murder.
Bodner said gang members often find themselves in the middle of violence.
"That's the lifestyle that they live," he said.
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