Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 9:56 a.m.
A 9-year-old girl who was in the house for five days while her mother lay slain in the bedroom cared for her three younger siblings and periodically wiped her mother's face with a wet towel in hopes that the dead woman would wake up.
This was the picture Clark County prosecutor David Stanton painted for jurors at the start of Taiwan Allen's first-degree murder trial on Thursday.
Authorities say Allen, 29, killed his live-in girlfriend, 30-year-old Yashoma Clemons, in a violent rage on April 14 and left her children alone with her body.
Clemons was shot twice in the head and once in the chest. Authorities did not discover her body until April 19.
Stanton said jurors would hear first-hand what Clemons' children saw and heard in the moments leading up to their mother's killing and the days they spent in the house with her body.
Jurors will hear from Clemons' 9-year-old daughter through her live testimony or a videotape of her prior testimony. The girl heard the couple arguing in the master bedroom before gunshots rang out, Stanton said.
"She will tell you that she heard a series of loud bangs, then she hears the defendant say, 'That's what you get for messing with me,' " Stanton said.
The children barricaded themselves in the girls' room and did not come out until Allen left in Clemons' Toyota Camry the next morning, Stanton said.
That's when the girl began caring for the other children, who included a 15-month-old, and checking on their mother, whom the girl later told police "was frozen."
The girl "will tell you the facts through the eyes of a 9-year-old," Stanton said.
But Allen's attorney, Frederick Santacroce, warned jurors not to let the tragic details of the case cause them to lose focus of the facts.
During his opening statement, Santacroce set out to prove the killing was justifiable. He described Clemons as a "very violent person."
On the night of the slaying, Santacroce said, a gunfight broke out in the bedroom that ended in both Clemons and Allen being shot. Clemons fired first, he argued.
"She shot my client three times. A bullet grazed his head. One is lodged in the back of his head. One is lodged in his stomach.
"My client was merely acting in self-defense."
Santacroce said Allen would testify about the gun battle. Clemons' ex-husband is also expected to testify that Clemons was violent toward him in that relationship.
Chantal Oloyo, Allen's sister, said she and Allen's father went to Clemons' home in the 6700 block of Tiffolo Lane near Hollywood Boulevard on April 19 when she hadn't heard from Clemons or Allen in a few days.
Oloyo said she became concerned because she could hear the television on but no one answered the door. Eventually, she said, the 9-year-old came to the door and let her inside.
The girl initially said her mother had gone to the store. Oloyo pressed further, however, when she noticed the house was dirty and it appeared as if the dishes had not been washed for days.
"I noticed there was an unusual odor," Oloyo said. "I said, 'She's not at the store, where is she?' "
Oloyo said the girl pointed to a back bedroom. "(The girl) said she's on the floor and she's been in there since Tuesday."
Oloyo said she immediately went outside and called police. She said she did not go into the room and she never saw Clemons' body.
Authorities say Allen fled following the slaying. Clemons' car was found four days later in the parking lot of a local Embassy Suites motel. A sweatshirt found in the car contained Allen's blood.
Allen remained a fugitive for nearly two weeks until he was arrested on May 2 in Wisconsin and extradited back to Nevada.
Testimony in the case was expected to continue this afternoon.
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