Plea bargain made in neighbor’s killing

Kim Smith

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

A 61-year-old Las Vegas man accused of shooting a neighbor to death last year in a dispute over his yard sales will spend between five and 20 years in prison.

David Earl Reed pleaded guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon rather than face a trial this week that could have resulted in a first- or second-degree murder conviction.

As a result of the plea agreement, District Judge Joseph Bonaventure will sentence Reed on Aug. 1 to five to 20 years. He could have received as much as life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder.

Reed told police he shot 59-year-old Gene Cattaneo on Thanksgiving Day in self-defense after Cattaneo photographed the yard sale in front of Reed's house, then attacked the neighbor with a golf club.

According to grand jury transcripts, however, at least one neighbor said both of Cattaneo's hands were on his camera when Reed walked across the street clutching a handgun.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Rutledge said he believed a jury would have found Reed guilty of voluntary manslaughter had the case gone to trial.

"Because there is the guarantee Mr. Reed will get prison time, we thought the plea agreement was a fair resolution of the case," Rutledge said.

Deputy Public Defender Joseph Abood said Reed is a "good man" who had never been in trouble before.

"Had the case gone to trial we clearly would have been able to show that the victim pursued David Reed throughout that day," Abood said. "We truly believe that David was just in doing what he did, but we're also smart enough to know that a jury may not see it that way."