Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.
The man on trial for the killing of a 9-year-old North Las Vegas girl told another inmate at the jail that he was guilty of the crime, prosecutors said in court Wednesday.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said 24-year-old Pascual Lozano made the admission to a cellmate at the Clark County Detention Center.
News of the possible jailhouse informant angered Deputy Special Public Defenders Bret Whipple and Ivette Maningo, who argued that the man's testimony would be prejudicial to their client.
"To drop a bombshell on the second week of trial is extraordinarily unfair," Whipple said.
Kane said he had just learned of the witness Wednesday morning.
Whipple said the jailhouse informant's testimony would be "prejudicial and unreliable."
Defense attorneys said they would need extra time to conduct their own investigation into the alleged confession. District Judge John McGroarty said he would consider postponing the trial if necessary.
Prosecutors did not reveal the jailhouse informant's name, but defense attorneys said the informant is Scott Riddell. Riddell, who ran a local modeling agency, is awaiting trial on charges that he molested a 14-year-old girl.
Kane said he hadn't spoken to the informant personally, but that investigators from the district attorney's office had interviewed him at the jail.
Kane said the man told investigators that Lozano told him, "I killed a girl accidentally. I was shooting at another guy."
Kane said the informant told Lozano, "You're going to fry, dude."
To that, Lozano allegedly responded, "No, I got it covered."
It was still unclear when or if the informant would testify.
Whipple said Riddel's alleged criminal history indicates the man cannot be trusted as a credible witness in the Lozano case.
"He has deceived other individuals and now he's deceiving the district attorney's office in an effort to get a better deal," he said.
Prior to the unexpected twist of the alleged confession, a 9-year-old Heidi Gonzales had described for jurors what she saw the night she was shot and her older sister was killed in the courtyard of their North Las Vegas apartment complex.
Prosecutors say Lozano, 24, was firing shots at a man named Robert Valentine when stray bullets hit and killed 9-year-old Genesis Gonzales.
Heidi Gonzales was shot in the leg in the incident but she survived the shooting.
Heidi testified that she was outside her family's apartment in the 3400 block of Civic Center Drive when gunshots rang out.
She said she was playing with Genesis, her younger brother and the three children of another woman who shared the apartment with the Gonzales family.
"A loud noise went like, boom, boom," Heidi Gonzales said. "We were all afraid so we ran inside. My sister (Genesis) fell and my other sister pulled the kids inside."
Heidi said she ran into the house and Genesis and the other children followed her. Heidi had run into her mother's room when she noticed she'd been shot, she said.
" I felt something hot on my leg," she said. "It was a big cut. It felt terrible."
The girls' 14-year-old sister, Tannia, was baby-sitting the six children, one of whom was a 10-month-old baby, while her mother and the neighbor were washing clothes.
Heidi said she was inside the apartment when she heard about four shots. The children ran inside and she went outside to pick up the baby. When Tonya returned, she realized that Genesis had collapsed in front of the couch.
"I turned around and saw my sister on the ground bleeding to death," she said, crying. "I went straight to my sister and said, 'Can you hear me? Can you talk to me? Please don't die, I need you.' "
Tannia Gonzales said she went outside and caught a quick glimpse of the shooter, who was standing behind a tree near the apartment.
"I saw a man with a gun behind the tree," she said. "He was shooting in the alley."
In court, Tannia Gonzales could not identify Lozano as the man with the gun. She said shooter was wearing a white shirt and dark pants and had chin-length dark hair. Lozano now has chin-length dark hair; it's unclear if he had it at the time of the shooting.
Tannia Gonzales said her mother had instructed her not to let the children play outside before the women left. Tannia said she let the children outside because they were bored with watching television inside.
"They didn't have anything to do so I let them go outside and play," she said. "I told them to stay by the door. I left the wooden door and the screen door open."
She said Genesis was playing with the baby and Heidi was playing by the tree when she'd last checked on the children, moments before the shots rang out.
Authorities believe Genesis could have been trying to shield the baby from the gunfire when she was shot herself.
Valentine, the man prosecutors say was Lozano's intended target, also took the witness stand on Wednesday. He said he was urinating in an alleyway off Civic Center Drive when a car drove by and the people in the car made a gesture toward him.
"They drove by, they threw up a gang sign at me," he said. "I turned around and I was like, what's up?"
Valentine said the car made a U-turn and when it came to a stop, a man jumped out from the backseat and began walking toward him. The man was holding something close to his side, Valentine said.
"I seen a gun. As soon as I saw the gun I just ran and never looked back," he said.
Valentine said he did not notice anyone in the courtyard as he ran through it and he eventually hopped a fence to get away from the gunman.
In court Wednesday, Valentine said he could not identify Lozano as the man who shot at him. He also could not identify Lozano when police showed him Lozano and several other suspects hours after the shooting.
In a taped statement Valentine gave police, he initially said he thought the gunman was black. In court Tuesday, however, he said he was not sure of the ethnicity of the man who shot at him.
Testimony in the trial will resume on Monday.
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