DEA agent indicted in seduction case

Kim Smith

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

A Clark County grand jury has handed down a 21-page indictment against a Drug Enforcement Agency agent accusing him of propositioning 12 young boys between January and March.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed in District Court Wednesday, Steven Lynn Kinney, 42, faces 66 counts of attempted sexual assault, attempted statutory sexual seductions, attempted lewdness and solicitation of a minor to engage in acts constituting an infamous crime against nature.

Kinney, who was arrested in March, will be arraigned June 5 by District Judge Lee Gates.

"Basically the 66 counts cover the same allegations that were initially made in the criminal complaint," Kinney's attorney David Chesnoff said. "We're at the beginning of the case and Mr. Kinney will respond in court."

Prosecutors allege Kinney wrote notes to the boys, wrapped them around small rocks and dropped them at the feet of boys in stores. Each of the notes reportedly asked the boys if they would submit to a sex act for between $20 and $50.

Police have said that Kinney was arrested following an investigation prompted by his wife, a civilian DEA employee.

Kinney, 42, was a firearms instructor for the DEA along with being a narcotics investigator in Las Vegas. Kinney, a DEA agent since 1992, was suspended with pay on March 7, two days after the FBI and Metro searched his home.

Calls to a media spokesman for the DEA were not returned.

Death penalty

A Las Vegas man arrested for the June slaying of an 84-year-old woman could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

Glenn Anderson Mundo made his initial appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court this morning in the June slaying of Virginia Peart.

During the brief hearing Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas told Justice of the Peace Pro Tem Thomas Sheets the case will go before a death penalty review committee made up of prosecutors.

The prosecutor told Sheets two attorneys who are certified to handle death penalty cases needed to be appointed to the case. Sheets appointed the Clark County public defender's office.

Mundo, who is already serving a 12- to 32-month prison sentence for violating probation in a robbery case, was charged last week with the sexual assault and murder of Peart.

The 84-year-old woman's son found her body on the floor of her home near Owens Avenue and Nellis Boulevard on June 25. An autopsy showed she had been asphyxiated.

According to police records, Mundo's fingerprint was inside the neck of a broken beer bottle that was found on a living room chair. A dark hair found on the victim's chest and a sample of Mundo's hair were submitted for DNA testing and a match could not be ruled out, reports show.

Mundo told police he strangled and raped Peart when she woke up while he was burglarizing her home, according to the police report. He used the broken beer bottle to cut the screen on her front window to gain access to her home.

Teen murder suspect

A Clark County public defender certified to handle death penalty cases has been assigned to represent a 16-year-old Las Vegas boy accused of killing two people last week and shooting a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli asked Chief District Judge Mark Gibbons Wednesday to assign a specially trained attorney to the Giles Manley case because his office intends to indict Manley and seek the death penalty.

Gibbons appointed Deputy Public Defenders Will Ewing to the case. Ewing said he will likely be joined by fellow defense attorney Joe Abood because every defendant facing the death penalty is entitled to two attorneys.

"If you want proof that there's something wrong with the death penalty, filing on a 16-year-old is a good indication," Ewing said after the hearing.

Manley is accused of shooting Isaac Perez, 21, May 10 during a carjacking and causing a crash that killed Patrick Melia, 41, later the same evening.

Manley was formally charged last week with 11 felony charges, including two counts of open murder.

Police allege that Manley kidnapped Perez, a custodian, from Ruth Fyfe Elementary School and forced him to drive away in Perez's new Lincoln Town Car. When Perez, 21, ran into a trooper's car on the Eastern Avenue exit ramp to get the officer's attention, police allege, Manley shot him.

Manley also is accused of shooting Trooper Guy Davis in the foot, then carjacking a sport utility vehicle.

About four hours later, police say, Manley led North Las Vegas Police on a 22-minute high-speed chase that ended when the SUV smashed into Melia's car at Vegas Drive and Decatur Boulevard, killing Melia.

High Xanax level

A Las Vegas resident indicted Tuesday in connection with an accident that killed a construction flag worker had 10 times the normal prescription level of Xanax in his urine, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said experts told grand jurors that most people taking one to four milligrams of Xanax daily have between 100 and 300 nanograms of the anxiety drug in their urine.

Troy Stephen Johnson had 3,700 nanograms in his urine shortly after the accident that killed Lezlee Johnson, 42, of Boulder City on May 8, Booker said.

Johnson, 36, also had morphine in his urine, Booker said. The prosecutor said heroin breaks down into morphine after it has been in the body for a period of time and Johnson admitted to having a heroin addiction at one time.

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Johnson faces two counts of driving under the influence of a controlled or prohibited substance, two counts of reckless driving and one count of involuntary manslaughter.

Johnson, who remains in jail on $1 million bail, is scheduled to be arraigned by District Judge Nancy Saitta May 29.

Police officers said that Johnson failed to stop at a red light or hand-held stop sign near Jones Boulevard and Smoke Ranch Road and hit two vehicles stopped at the intersection. He then allegedly continued and hit Lezlee Johnson before striking a third and fourth vehicle.

Troy Johnson was treated and released from UMC, then placed under arrest.