News briefs for April 24, 2003

Thursday, April 24, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

Police seek tips in shooting death

Henderson Police are asking the public's help in solving the shooting death of William Francis Shepherd, 54, of Las Vegas who was found about 4:30 a.m. Monday lying next to his 1993 Mercury Villager on Patrick Lane.

Witnesses told police they heard yelling, a gunshot and a vehicle speeding from the scene on Patrick between Stephanie Street and Whitney Ranch Drive.

Police believe the victim may have argued with the suspect before the shooting.

Witnesses said they heard the name Phillip.

Anyone with information is asked to call Henderson Police at 565-8933 or CrimeStoppers at 385-5555.

Boulder City leases field

The Boulder City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved leasing 3.4 acres of city-owned land near the city landfill to a nonprofit group that plans to build and operate a radio-controlled model aircraft field there.

The Boulder City Eldorado Valley Flyers were given a five-year lease for the property. The group will not pay rent so long as it builds, maintains and supervises the field, according to the agreement with the city.

House fire sends couple to hospital

An elderly couple were taken to Summerlin Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation late Wednesday night after a fire broke out in their northwest Las Vegas home, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Firefighters responded to the duplex at 9456 Gold Mountain Drive about 11:30 p.m.

Fire investigators were still examining fire damages at midnight, Szymanski said.

The couple, the only two people in the house, were taken to the hospital because they were elderly, he said.

The damage had not been estimated.

LV enters plea in jewelry case

A Las Vegas man has pleaded innocent in federal court in Biloxi, Miss., to charges that he and his mother opened businesses in south Mississippi as a front to obtain more than $2.1 million in jewelry.

Jeffrey Braverman and his mother, Carole Behm, who has since died, are accused in the indictment of conspiring to defraud jewelers of expensive diamonds mailed to Gulfport because the couple claimed to have a monopoly on jewelry sales at Gulfport casinos.

The two closed their check-cashing shops in Gulfport and the town of Gautier and moved without paying for the jewels, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Biloxi.

Braverman, 40, was arraigned Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate John M. Roper and given a trial date of June 2. Roper declined to set a bond for Braverman.

The allegations of false representation and mail fraud reportedly occurred in 1997. A federal grand jury indicted Braverman and Behm in July 2002.

The FBI's Gulfport district office was unable to locate Braverman until March, when agents found him in Las Vegas. His mother died after the indictment was filed.