Teen who missed shooting sentencing may have left U.S.

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003 | 11:23 a.m.

One of two teens accused of shooting a Henderson man with an assault rifle avoided sentencing for a second time Wednesday in District Court, and his attorney feared he had fled to Mexico.

Raymond Lane, 17, and Nicholas Maestas, 18, were scheduled to be sentenced by District Judge Donald Mosley in the July shooting death of Jaime Sotelo Jr., 20, in Henderson. Lane did not show up. It was the second time he missed a sentencing hearing.

Defense attorney James "Bucky" Buchanan said he suspects Lane and his mother, who are Guatemalan, may have fled to Mexico, which does not extradite prisoners to the United States.

"It could be a lost cause to get him back here unless he comes back on his own will to face his sentence," Buchanan said.

Mosley gave Maestas life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years and issued a bench warrant for Lane.

Police say Lane and Maestas had met with Sotelo to settle an earlier fight over Sotelo's girlfriend. Prosecutors say they brought an assault gun to scare Sotelo, but Maestas shot Sotelo to death.

Lane, who prosecutors say supplied the gun, was given a deal that allowed him to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and battery with the use of a deadly weapon, because he was not the gunman, Chief Deputy District Attorney Victoria Villegas said. Mosley set bail of $100,000, saying at the time the high amount should keep him from fleeing.

Maestas pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which allowed him to avoid two life sentences without parole. He had remained in the Clark County Detention Center until the sentencing.

In exchange for the men's guilty pleas, Villegas dropped the initial charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. The terms of the deal do not allow prosecutors to withdraw it, she said.

But if Lane is found, Villegas said she can and will argue for the maximum sentence allowed: a one- to 10-year sentence for the manslaughter charge and a two- to 10-year sentence for the battery charge.

Buchanan said he had hoped Lane would get probation, but that's unlikely now.

"I don't think the fact that he's left the jurisdiction is going to help any," Buchanan said. "It's definitely not going to endear him to the judge. I think eventually he'll learn the error of his ways and come in talk to me and we'll surrender him."

Villegas maintained that while Lane was not the shooter, he provided the gun.

Lane had been released from the Clark County Detention Center in December on the $100,000 bond put up by his uncle and was under house arrest ordered by juvenile court in connection with another case.

Now the bond is being forfeited, which will cost the uncle $10,000 and the property he used as collateral.