More prison time given in killings

Kim Smith

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 9:16 a.m.

When Gustavo Cumplido backed out of his plea agreement after serving a year in prison for murder, he hoped to go to trial, clear his name and gain his freedom.

On Wednesday, Cumplido had three to 13 years tacked onto the 20 to 50 years he was originally serving.

In December a Clark County jury convicted Cumplido on two counts of second-degree murder -- the same crimes to which he pleaded guilty in 1999.

The jury also convicted him of attempted murder and discharging a firearm into a vehicle, leaving the door open for District Judge Lee Gates Wednesday to add prison time.

Gates gave Cumplido three to 13 years on one of the weapons charges and ordered him to serve it after the murder sentences. The other sentences will run concurrently.

Cumplido, 39, was convicted in the February 1999 shooting deaths of Eloy Numez, 17, and Carlos Lopez, 20.

Cumplido told jurors that on Feb. 20, 1999, someone shot at his house for the second time in four days. He said he jumped into a truck with two of his teenage sons and two family friends, and chased the gunmen.

Cumplido told police he fired on the victims' Nissan pickup with his .12 gauge shotgun after seeing a passenger reach for what he thought was a weapon.

Prosecutors proved Numez and Lopez were not the teens who were harassing the Cumplido family and that they were unarmed.

Cumplido, however, insisted Wednesday that he did nothing wrong.

"That night they come to my house, I didn't go searching for them," Cumplido said through a Spanish-speaking interpreter. "They're the ones who shot first that night, not I."

Gates harshly criticized Cumplido for an apparent lack of remorse and for the poor example he set for his children that night.

"Everything you said is not true," Gates said. "This is a complete waste."