Man facing life in prison bails himself out of sentence

Kim Smith

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.

A Las Vegas man facing two life sentences for getting his 13-year-old stepdaughter pregnant made bail before his sentencing Tuesday and may have left Las Vegas.

Court officials were at a loss to explain how the 31-year-old was able to post bail July 7, which allowed his release from the Clark County Detention Center. The Sun is not identifying the man to protect the identity of the victim.

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich Rego said she had not asked that bail be raised or revoked after the man's conviction last month, because he had not managed to bail out for 18 months before the trial.

"From now on when I get a conviction I'm going to ask the judge to hold the defendant on no bail," Rego said. "He had been in custody a year and a half and never had the money to bail out, and I had no reason to think that that would change."

A warrant was issued for his arrest by District Judge Michael Douglas, who presided over the man's trial.

Rego said she doubts the defendant is still in the area. He fled to Missouri when authorities first began investigating the case and had to be extradited after charges were filed.

His bail had been set at $31,000, standard for sexual assault charges. Typically defendants are required to post 10 percent of the bail amount with a bail bondsmen. A man answering the phone at Express Bail Bonds, which posted the bond, hung up on a reporter this morning.

It was unclear what the man put up as collateral for the bond.

Deputy Public Defender Christy Craig, who learned her client bailed out when she arrived in court Tuesday morning, said she was shocked.

"I've not had very many clients walk away on bail. In fact, most of them can't make bail," Craig said. "In public defender cases, most people are not inclined to put up their house or car as collateral. Somebody in this case has lost a substantial amount of money, and that's unusual."

"If he's in Las Vegas, I'm sure the police will pick him up," Craig said.

The man was to have received a sentence of 20 years to life for sexual assault of a minor. He also faced the possibility of a second sentence of 10 years to life for lewdness with a minor under 14.

District Court Judge John McGroarty said he was surprised by the incident.

"Generally, a prosecutor will ask to remand defendants (without bail) if they've been convicted," McGroarty said. "If a defendant is going to prison, we want to remand them because we want them to get credit for time served. They are also a flight risk, too, obviously."

Court records show the bail was set by Chief District Judge Mark Gibbons after the man was indicted by a grand jury in March. No motions were ever filed seeking a bail increase or a decrease.

The man's stepdaughter, who had to be forced to testify, told jurors that she has dropped out of school and is raising her son with her mother out of state. The man and the girl's mother are still married.

According to court testimony, Child Protective Services began investigating the paternity of the girl's child when someone called the state to report that her stepfather had fathered the child.

The girl told police, CPS workers and her mother that a boy named Julio was her son's father and despite DNA tests identifying her stepfather as the father, she stuck with that story during the trial.

The girl, however, also testified that while on a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, she had initiated some sexual contact with her stepfather. She said they stopped short of intercourse.