Verdict surprises slain girl’s mom

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

A North Las Vegas mother said Monday that she disagreed with a jury's decision to execute the man who killed her 9-year-old daughter during a gang shootout.

Jurors on Monday sentenced Pascual Lozano to death in the September 2002 shooting death of Genesis Gonzales.

Gonzales was struck by a stray bullet as she played in the courtyard of her apartment complex near Civic Center Drive and Cheyenne Avenue.

Gonzales' mother, Noemy Estrada, wept openly when the verdict was read, as did members of Lozano's family, who had packed the second row of the courtroom.

Outside court Estrada said she was surprised by the verdict. She said she had hoped that Lozano, 24, would not be sentenced to death.

"I didn't want this," she said, crying, through a Spanish-speaking interpreter. "I'm very sad. I never thought they would come out with this decision. But I had put everything in God's hands."

During the penalty phase of Lozano's capital murder trial, Estrada said only that she wanted justice to be served. Gonzales' 14-year-old sister, Tannia Gonzales, said she forgave Lozano and that she would pray for him.

As Estrada left the courthouse on Monday, she said she was not sure what sentence she felt Lozano should have received.

"I just put it in the law's hands, and they're the ones who made the decision," she said.

Deputy Special Public Defenders Bret Whipple and Ivette Maningo had urged jurors to return a more lenient sentence against their client.

Whipple said he was disappointed by the verdict but noted that the case would go through a series of automatic appeals.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane and Chief Deputy District Attorney Vickie Monroe argued for Lozano's execution.

"We're pleased with the verdict," Kane said. "We're satisfied with the jury's decision."

Kane, who spoke to jurors following their decision about Lozano's fate, said jurors told him Lozano's long criminal history was a major factor in their decision to sentence him to death.

Lozano had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a 1997 gang shootout that left three people injured. He had spent three years in prison prior to the shooting that killed Gonzales.

"The fact that he'd done a similar shooting, got out of prison and did it again indicated to jurors that he was going to keep doing it," Kane said. "That was a major, major aggravator."

Whipple, who also spoke with jurors, said the jurors believed Lozano's prior criminal record showed there was no hope for him.

"They felt he could not be rehabilitated and that he would always be a threat to society," he said. "They felt they had no other alternative but to give him the worst punishment."

Whipple said the jurors seemed "pretty comfortable with their decision."

Jurors had convicted Lozano of one count of first-degree murder and two additional counts of attempted murder after a trial before District Judge John McGroarty.

Lozano will be sentenced on the attempted murder counts on Dec. 15.

Prosecutors say Lozano shot Gonzales as he ran through the courtyard firing shots at a rival gang member named Robert Valentine.

Though jurors declined through a District Court spokesman to comment on the decision, a form read aloud in court helped shed some light on their decision.

The aggravating factors that jurors said they considered included Lozano's history of violent crime, the fact that the victim was under 14 and the fact that Lozano knowingly created a great risk of death.

The mitigating factors included the fact that the shooting was a mistake, Lozano's lack of positive role models and the fact that he likely joined a gang for protection.

Jurors determined that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors.

After the sentence was read, McGroarty said he would individually poll jurors to determine whether an article published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal influenced jurors' decision.

A feature story on Kane's career noted that Kane helped secure a conviction against Lozano and that jurors were still deliberating Lozano's punishment.

Court officials said while two of the jurors saw the story, no jurors said they had read it and that their sentence would stand. Jurors are instructed by judges to avoid all media coverage of a case during their service.