Teen pleads no-contest in shooting

Kim Smith

Thursday, July 11, 2002 | 8:49 a.m.

A 17-year-old Las Vegas resident will spend between two and 15 years in prison after striking a deal with prosecutors Wednesday over a shooting that left a 20-year-old woman in an irreversible coma.

Auntrell "Mookey" Clark on Wednesday pleaded the equivalent of no contest to one count of battery with use of a deadly weapon, causing substantial bodily harm.

Clark will be formally sentenced Aug. 21 by District Judge Lee Gates.

Clark had been scheduled to go to trial Monday on two counts of attempted murder in the Sept. 30 shooting of Kizzy "Pooh" Edwards, 20, and Celeste Walker, 32.

Walker, who walked out of the hospital that night despite a gunshot wound in the back, told police she didn't see her shooter.

According to court records, however, at least one witness told police that she saw Edwards and Clark arguing outside the Desert Breeze Apartments on West Bonanza Road. Five minutes later, she alleges she heard gunshots and saw Clark walking away from Edwards while tucking a gun in his waistband.

A juvenile probation officer alleges Clark later confessed to accidentally shooting Edwards and Walker while trying to shoot some other people.

Clark's attorney, Dean Kajioka, has been trying to get that statement thrown out as evidence because it was taken while his client was in custody on another case and he hadn't been given his Miranda warnings.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Frank Coumou said that had the probation officer's statement been declared inadmissible, his case against Clark would've been weakened.

It was for that reason, Coumou said, that the plea agreement was reached.

Meanwhile, Edwards, who was shot in the leg, lays in a coma in a Tustin, Calif., hospital located near her grandmother. She lost so much blood she suffered brain damage and slipped into the coma.

"That's the biggest tragedy of this case," Coumou said. "We've got a victim who can't fight for herself. She was murdered on the day she was shot. Although she's still alive, her life was taken away from her."

Coumou said it is believed Clark shot Edwards because she wouldn't return his affection.

"It's frustrating in this case because we know there are witnesses who know more, but they're not saying anything," Coumou said. "I know we have the right guy and he needs to be in prison for a long time, but the witnesses won't come clean."