Sav-On attacker laid in wait for a victim

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

A benefit memorial fund for Anziano's children has been set up at Wells Fargo Bank, account 8566708247.

As Christine Anziano got a prescription filled for her 4-year-old son early Saturday, a man with a knife was outside the pharmacy, waiting to choose a victim.

Surveillance camera footage shows an older woman walking out of Sav-On Drugs on Bonanza Road near Lamb Boulevard, and the man who was lurking out front didn't give her a second glance, Metro Homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said.

A second woman came out and asked the man for a light for her cigarette. The two chatted for a few seconds before she walked away.

But when 33-year-old Anziano came out of the store a few seconds later, the man grabbed her purse. The unemployed medical assistant refused to let her purse go, and as the man spun her around, he stabbed her repeatedly.

"We don't know why he let the other two walk away," Manning said. Perhaps it was because Anziano was the only one of the three who had a purse, Manning said.

After another knife attack and robbery the following night of a victim first encountered outside Food-4-Less at Bonanza and Pecos roads, police arrested James Ray Walker, 46, and Mary Smith, 51, in connection with both cases. The apparent motive was robbery in both incidents.

The arrests provided little consolation to Anziano's mother, Carol Huffman of Las Vegas. She can't make any sense of her daughter's death.

"She walked in the store, walked out of the store and never came home," Huffman said Tuesday. "I'm still in shock."

After taking Anziano's purse, her attacker ran to a waiting car, a white compact, and sped away. Anziano was able to drag herself into the store and plead for help but was pronounced dead soon after at University Medical Center, according to a police report obtained by the Sun.

Between the video and witness accounts, police were able to put together descriptions of the man, his getaway car and the woman who was driving the car.

The descriptions matched those of a couple who slit the throat and stabbed a man in the back during a robbery after giving him and a woman a ride home from a grocery store about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

According to the police report, Charles Cole and Deborah Kendrick, both 45, had been waiting for a cab after shopping at the Food-4-Less at Pecos and Bonanza roads. A man, believed to be Walker, struck up a conversation with Cole, and Cole asked the man if he could give him a ride.

The man agreed, told them to wait a minute, then returned with a woman in a older white car. They loaded the couple's groceries into the trunk and drove them to the 800 block of North Lamb Boulevard.

When Cole bent over the trunk to lift out the groceries, the man cut Cole's throat from one side to the other and stabbed him in his lower back before Cole handed over about $250.

Cole survived but staples had to be used to close the wound in his neck, and his liver had been lacerated, the report says.

Police were again able to use surveillance video, this time from the grocery store. One segment showed a car matching the description of the car from the Anziano killing. Another segment taped earlier in the day showed a couple matching the suspects' description walking to the store from the Desert Pines Townhomes nearby.

Sunday afternoon patrol officers saw a car matching the description of the suspects' car -- a white 1984 Subaru four-door -- that had what appeared to be blood on the trunk. It was parked in the 3800 block of East Coral Reef, across the street and to the south of Desert Pines Townhomes, 3750 E. Bonanza Road.

After tracing the registration of the car to Smith, police arrested Smith and Walker at Smith's Desert Pines apartment. Smith uses several aliases and was using the name Myrdus Archie when she was arrested Sunday afternoon.

Officers found a purse believed to be Anziano's in Smith's apartment, and they found a piece of Anziano's Social Security card in the toilet, the report says.

Walker and Smith have lengthy criminal records: Walker is a seven-time convicted felon and served 22 years in Nevada prisons for attempted murder and robbery. Smith is a 10-time convicted felon, police said.

Police were still checking this week to see if Smith and Walker might be suspects in other crimes.

Huffman said Anziano was at the drugstore so late because her 4-year-old son, Tyler, had broken his arm earlier that night and they hadn't gotten home from the hospital until about 2 a.m.

Anziano had left her mobile home park and walked across Bonanza to the Sav-On to get medication for him because Tyler was in pain, Huffman said.

Now Tyler, along with his siblings, 3-year-old Alissa and 7-year-old Joshua, are staying with Joshua's father "because they need to grieve together," Huffman said.