Murder suspect is back in jail

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

A day after being accidentally released from the Clark County jail, Ronald "Shotgun" Garren was captured after police stormed a hotel room where he was staying, Metro Police said Wednesday.

Moments after Garren was captured at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Terrible's Casino on Paradise Road, he turned to police and said, "Hey, they just let me go," Lt. Jim Moses of Metro's Criminal Apprehension Team said.

Garren, 39, was awaiting transfer to Nye County on murder, embezzlement and other charges when a communications snafu at the Clark County Detention Center caused him to be released by mistake, Paul Martin, chief of the detention center, said.

"It was human error," Martin said. "There's no two ways to say it. We blew it."

Nye County officials said Garren was released from the detention center at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday before law enforcement officials could pick him up. But Martin contends that Garren wasn't released until about noon, and Nye County officials arrived after that, late for their 10 a.m. scheduled pick up time.

While Garren waited, a communications breakdown between the records department and the corrections officer that assigns inmate releases didn't list all of Garren's charges. He was subsequently let go.

The Clark County Detention Center books up to 50,000 inmates a year for various charges. Of those 14 were accidentally released this year and 10 were recovered, detention center officials said.

Of those only Garren was facing charges as serious as murder. Five faced drug charges and other offenses ranged from auto burglary and forgery to domestic violence and driving without insurance, according to Capt. Henry Hoogland of the detention center.

"This is the most serious case we've had this year," Martin said.

Garren was wanted on murder charges in the Oct. 5 shooting death of George Weber in Pahrump. Before he could stand trial, Garren fled to McDonald County in Missouri, where he has family.

Missouri authorities tracked down and captured Garren before transferring him by Con Air because of his flight risk, Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said.

"Garren had told people that he would rather be buried than go back to prison," DeMeo said. "That's a very ominous tone for law enforcement."