Suspect in killing of girl, 9, will stay in jail

Kim Smith

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

A 22-year-old man accused of shooting a 9-year-old North Las Vegas girl will remain in the North Las Vegas jail without bail, for now.

Pascual Lozano appeared before North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Natalie Tyrrell Wednesday for what was supposed to be his preliminary hearing.

A scheduling snafu prevented the hearing from moving forward, and Deputy Special Public Defender Dayvid Figler instead took the opportunity to ask Tyrrell to set bail for his client.

Prosecutors allege Lozano was traveling in a car with three other men Sept. 7 when they saw a man from a rival gang passing by on a bicycle. The men flashed gang signs at the bicyclist, then one of the men got out of the car and began firing at the man, police allege.

One of the shots struck and killed Genesis Gonzalez, 9, and another hit her 8-year-old sister, Heidi, in the thigh.

Heidi, who was scheduled to testify at the hearing, clung tightly to her mother, Norma Estrada, Wednesday.

Estrada, speaking through an interpreter, said Heidi has been hesitant to return to school. Starting today, however, Estrada said she will start attending class with her daughter.

"She's not doing very well. She really misses her sister a lot, they were only a year apart," Estrada said. "She keeps remembering continually and she cries and screams."

Estrada says her entire family is fearful of gang retaliation and she spends a lot of time looking out her window for people wearing gang colors.

"I try to help my daughters to get ahead, and we're going through therapy," Estrada said. "We have accepted what has happened, but we can't go past it. Each day is very, very terrible for us."

Lozano's family members declined to comment.

In asking that Lozano be kept in jail without bail, Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said he believes Lozano is a flight risk and a danger to the community. The DA's office is considering pursuing the death penalty in the case as well.

The evidence against Lozano is compelling, the prosecutor said.

Kane said a witness gave the license plate of the car to the police and identified Lozano as the shooter when police stopped the car hours later.

Lozano's prints were also found in the passenger area of the car, Kane said.

Figler, in asking for bail, described the evidence as "weak." He noted that a second witness could not pick Lozano from a photo lineup.

Tyrrell declined to set bail, but said she may reconsider Figler's motion following the newly scheduled preliminary hearing Oct. 29.

Figler said after the hearing that police reports indicate prints belonging to more than a dozen other people were also found in the suspect vehicle.

"It's pretty evident right now that this is a very circumstantial case and it is easy, because of the horror of what happened to the Gonzalez family, for the police to jump to the conclusions," Figler said.

Figler said he is confident that despite his client's "checkered past" the police will continue to investigate the shooting diligently and "do the right thing."

Lozano was sentenced to 34 to 84 months in state prison for battery with a deadly weapon in 1997, according to court records. The charge stemmed from a 1996 gang-related shooting that wounded several people.