Man gets 5 years in death of daughter

Kim Smith

Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

An elderly Las Vegas man accused of strangling his daughter in May was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday.

Kenneth Moore, 74, will have to serve at least two years before becoming eligible for parole in the May death of Loretta Beechler, 49.

Beechler's body was found 500 feet away from her father's house in the 2200 block of Bledsoe Lane near Nellis and Lake Mead boulevards.

Moore was charged with murder 10 weeks later, after police were able to establish that a bite mark on his arm was caused by Beechler. Another daughter also told detectives that Moore told her "When you spread Loretta's ashes, tell her I'm sorry for what I done."

Moore entered the equivalent of a no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter in December. District Judge John McGroarty had to decide Wednesday whether Moore should receive probation or as much as 10 years in prison.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz argued Moore should be given the maximum sentence, describing him as a cold and unemotional man who only showed up in court in a wheelchair to con the judge into giving him probation.

Schwartz said a caretaker of Moore's informed him that Moore just days ago rented the oxygen tank he was sporting Wednesday. The wheelchair, he said, is just a matter of convenience.

"The truth obviously means very little to the defendant," Schwartz said.

Following the hearing, Brown said California investigators are taking another look at the death of Moore's 3-year-old grandson, Jason Miller. The boy, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was found suffocated in a plastic bag in Moore's home in 1977.