News briefs for January 29, 2002

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2002 | 9:17 a.m.

Student services VP named

Robert A. Anderson Jr. has been hired as the Community College of Southern Nevada's vice president for student services.

Anderson is the first top level administrator hired by college President Ron Remington, who was hired in July. The college hasn't had a permanent vice president for student services in about two years.

The institution's rapid growth has outpaced the department's ability to keep up, Remington said.

Anderson, most recently president of Colorado Northwestern Community College, will earn $127,500 annually.

Four life sentences given

A Las Vegas man was given four consecutive life sentences Monday in connection with the death of a man family members described as a "loving, generous and caring" family man.

Robin McGinness, 50, was convicted in December of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery in the March 1999 death of Henry Doepke.

According to court records, Doepke was last seen leaving his apartment in the early morning hours of March 21, 1999.

Police found his truck parked at a bar two weeks later, and McGinness quickly became their prime suspect. Detectives found a notebook inside Doepke's car with McGinness' Budget Suites room number scrawled inside, according to court documents.

During a search of McGinness' room, police found scraps of paper, two guns, flex ties, gloves and duct tape. When crime-scene analysts put the scraps of paper together, they found references to 'securing' someone and to Mesquite.

One month after McGinness began serving time for stealing Doepke's credit cards, Doepke's remains were found and McGinness was charged with murder.

33 arrested in southern Arizona

State, federal and local authorities fanned out across the Yuma, Ariz., area Monday, arresting 33 people among 50 indicted for operating a southern Arizona drug ring that funneled narcotics through Las Vegas.

"We think it's a tentacle of a network" for the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel, one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico, said Jim Molesa, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The three-year investigation netted 2,575 pounds of marijuana and small amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine, said Kyle Barnette, U.S. Customs associate special agent in charge in Tucson.

The seized drugs were valued at more than $1 million, he said.

The ring is accused of smuggling narcotics from Mexico into the Yuma area and then shipping it by car to cities including Detroit, Phoenix, Las Vegas and major cities in California.