Teen pleads guilty in deadly drive-by

Erica Johnson

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 8:48 a.m.

Seventeen-year-old Milton Ennis pleaded guilty Monday to murder charges stemming from a deadly drive-by shooting in North Las Vegas last year.

Ennis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Tyrone Hammond, 21, outside the Cheyenne Condominium Apartments.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure is to sentence Ennis to 10 to 25 years on May 19, Deputy District Attorney Melissa De La Garza said. The sentence was stipulated as part of the plea agreement.

Prosecutors have alleged the shooting was gang-related, but De La Garza would not comment on whether Hammond was the intended target.

Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld, Ennis' attorney, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Ennis, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was charged as an adult under a state law that automatically transfers children 8 and older into the adult system when charged with a killing.

In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped multiple charges, including murder with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm out of a vehicle with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.

According to published reports, Ennis previously faced multiple felony counts in a deadly car crash in December 2001 that left two teens dead.

Police say Ennis, then 14, had stolen a car and took it on a high-speed chase that ended in a three-car collision.