Woman testifies she saw killings

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, June 26, 2003 | 9:05 a.m.

A suspect in a triple homicide will face murder charges in District Court, after a neighbor testified on Wednesday that she watched him shoot a teenage boy on an apartment balcony.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo ordered Glenford Anthony Budd, 20, to stand trial on three murder counts in the May shootings that killed Da'jon Jones, 13, Jason Moore, 17, and Derrick Jones, 23.

Budd will be arraigned before District Judge Nancy Saitta on July 2.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz said prosecutors could seek the death penalty in the case.

"We'll be taking the case to the Death Penalty Review Committee within the next week or two," he said.

Abbatangelo's ruling came after emotional testimony by a woman who lived in the Saratoga Palms II apartment complex, directly across from the apartment where the shootings occurred.

"It sounded like fireworks," she said of the gunshots that rang out from inside the apartment.

The witness said she was sitting on her patio with a friend on May 27 when the shooting began. She then noticed a woman and a teenage boy run from the apartment, she said.

Initially she thought the young men who lived in the apartment were just playing around, she said.

"But that all changed when the defendant came out," she said.

Budd went out onto the patio and begin shooting at what looked like a moving target, she testified.

"He started shooting the gun," she said, crying. "And then I realized that somebody was on the patio and had been shot. I couldn't believe it."

The testimony wrapped up the second half of Budd's preliminary hearing.

During the beginning of the hearing last week, several witnesses testified against Budd, including a Henderson woman who said Budd told her he'd dreamed of killing three people over drugs.

Budd's uncle, Winston Budd, said Budd told him that he'd killed three people after they had tried to rob him.

During Wednesday's hearing the witness said she watched Budd pump three bullets into the boy she later learned was Moore.

"He was pointing (the gun) as if whoever was on the patio was trying to get away," she said.

Her patio light was broken, she said, but an overhead light between the two apartments illuminated the events that unfolded on the patio next door.

"It was bright on the steps and it glares onto the patio so I could see," she said. "I had a clear view of the apartment across the way."

The woman, who has since moved from the complex, said she did not know Budd personally, but she'd seen him around the complex. She said Budd was friends with one of her past roommates.

Dr. Rexene Worrell, a Clark County medical examiner who performed autopsies on the victims, said all three victims were shot several times.

Moore, whose body was found on the patio, was shot three times from the back, she said. Derrick Jones was shot seven times and Da'jon Jones was shot twice, she said.

All three victims had marijuana in their system at the time of the slayings, she said.

Budd, who maintains his innocence, told police that on the day of the slayings he had approached the victims about a missing half-pound of marijuana.

He said he ran from the apartment when he heard the sound of gunshots coming from inside.