News briefs for July 29, 2002

Monday, July 29, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

Driver, 18, charged with hit and run

An 18-year-old Las Vegas man was charged with driving under the influence and hit and run following an accident Saturday night that injured five people -- one critically.

William Sanchez was booked into the Clark County jail after the accident about 9 p.m. on Nellis Boulevard at Wyoming Avenue, Metro Police said.

Police said Sanchez's Chevrolet Tahoe hit a car driven by Greg Lee, 19, of Las Vegas, injuring Lee and his four passengers. Three passengers were taken to Desert Springs Hospital with moderate injuries.

Martha Martinez, 20, was taken to University Medical Center and was in critical condition this morning. Lee was listed in good condition at UMC.

More airmen join terrorism fight

Nevada deployed 13 additional airmen from the 152nd Security Forces Squadron in Reno Sunday to undisclosed locations in the fight against terrorism.

The Security Forces Squadron members will be gone for 90 days and could be moved among several locations. Of the nearly 100-member unit, about 50 percent have been deployed at various times since December to Afghanistan, Southwest Asia, Cuba, Turkey, Central America and stateside locations in the war against terrorism.

On Friday, 11 members from the 66th Rescue Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base returned home from serving in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Worker arrested in foreman's death

Police arrested a 35-year-old Las Vegas man Saturday night in the shooting death of his construction foreman.

Co-workers found Vaughn Russell, 43, dead early Saturday morning at a construction site near the Las Vegas Beltway and Durango Drive shortly after Reyes Olivares allegedly threatened the victim in his absence and showed co-workers a gun, police said.

They found the foremen dead from apparent gunshot wounds behind a storage trailer for the construction site in the 9200 block of Monterey Cliffs Avenue.

Olivares was acting irrationally prior to the shooting, co-workers told police.

Olivares is being held in the Clark County Detention Center.

Guilty pleas made in identify thefts

Six defendants indicted for identity theft pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Daniel England, Lee Kingen, Martin Degenhardt, Chantia Lail, Jeanette Watts and Challisa Parisi join co-defendant Tasha Gurtner and the group's ringleader, Justin Stonecypher, in entering guilty pleas for their roles in a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from banks and other financial institutions using fake driver's licenses and stolen checks.

Stonecypher and Gurtner pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy and bank fraud May 29 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. All of their co-defendants except Parisi and Lail, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, entered the same plea.

A ninth defendant named in the eight-count indictment returned May 15 by the federal grand jury, Rachel Young, remains a fugitive.

The defendants face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the bank fraud charges and five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charges. Stonecypher and Gurtner will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Phillip Pro Aug. 16. The rest will be sentenced Oct. 18.

Shooting claims one man's life

A 23-year-old Las Vegas man is dead and another is in stable condition after what police called a gang-related shooting Thursday night in the 1200 block of Cunningham Drive.

Police said Dejuantre L. Morris was shot from behind while standing with a friend near the sidewalk in the neighborhood near Owens Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard. He and his friend were taken to University Medical Center where Morris died a few hours later.

Officers and emergency personnel responded to a report of shots fired at 10:40 p.m. Thursday where they found the two gunshot victims in the street.

The suspect is believed to be a 5-foot-6, 165-pound man last seen wearing a black shirt and gray or black pants, according to media reports.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Metro homicide at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.

Three sentenced in casino cheating

Three out of 17 people indicted in a cheating ring that took more than $1 million dollars from several area casinos were sentenced to four to 18 months in federal prison Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

Liang Tung Chan, Jie Bo Wu and Jun Huai Ma, who pleaded guilty to one count of felony racketeering conspiracy, were also ordered by U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt to pay more than $3.3 million in restitution.

The three were part of a larger organization that cheated several casinos throughout the United States and Canada by marking and peeking at cards in baccarat and blackjack, prosecutors said.