Witness changes story in child’s death

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

One of the witnesses prosecutors expected to link Pascual Lozano to the shooting that killed a 9-year-old North Las Vegas girl appeared reluctant on Monday to implicate his friend in the crime.

Shortly after the Sept. 7, 2002, shooting, police taped Darrian Moten's explanation about how he had been riding in a Ford Taurus with Lozano and four other men when Lozano noticed a man named Robert Valentine in the 3400 block of Civic Center Drive near Cheyenne Avenue.

Lozano "said, 'I'm going to get at this dude right here.' He just jumped out of the car and chased that dude down," Moten told police.

Moments later Moten heard two to three shots ring out and Lozano ran back to the car, Moten told police.

Moten, 23, also told detectives that Lozano, 24, appeared to have a chrome-colored automatic handgun in his right pocket prior to the shooting.

Moten's tape-recorded statement to police was played for jurors Monday, but as Moten sat in the witness stand across from Lozano, Moten denied much of what he previously told police.

He said Lozano approached Valentine, who was urinating near a garbage bin, and the two had gone behind the garbage bins when the shots rang out. When questioned by prosecutors, Moten denied ever seeing Lozano with a gun.

"I didn't see no gun, no nothing," he testified. "Pascual didn't have no gun."

Lozano faces a possible death sentence if convicted in the shooting death of Genesis Gonzalez. Prosecutors say a bullet meant for Valentine actually hit Gonzalez and wounded her 8-year-old sister Heidi. They say Lozano was the triggerman.

Moten was not charged in the incident but placed in police custody as a material witness shortly before he was to testify.

District Judge John McGroarty on Monday declared Moten a hostile witness at the request of prosecutors.

Deputy Special Public Defender Bret Whipple was expected to cross-examine Moten this afternoon.

Prosecutors say that after Lozano confronted Valentine, Valentine ran through a courtyard area where Gonzalez was outside playing with her sister and a 10-month-old boy from next door.

Prosecutors allege Lozano shot at Valetine in the courtyard. Heidi was grazed in the leg by a bullet and treated and released from the hospital. Genesis was struck in the chest and died.

During his testimony Monday, Moten said Lozano, who also goes by the nickname "P-Baby," noticed Valentine while the men were driving down the street. Moten, Lozano and another man were in the back seat, Moten said.

He said the men were not driving in the area for any particular reason and they were headed nowhere in particular.

Moten acknowledged that all of the men in the car were members of the Donna Street Crips and that the area where the shooting occurred is primarily known as "Blood turf," territory of a rival gang. He denied, however, that Lozano or anyone else in the car made gang sign gestures toward Valentine, as police have suggested.

Prosecutors pointed out several significant discrepancies between Moten's testimony and the story he initially told police.

Moten initially told police he was not in the car when the shooting took place, for example.

Moten on Monday also testified that Lozano didn't say anything when he got back into the car. But in his taped interview with police detectives, Moten said Lozano, when he returned to the car, acknowledged firing shots at Valentine.