Death penalty sought in slaying

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Oct. 27, 2003 | 9:34 a.m.

Clark County prosecutors this afternoon will begin trying to convince jurors that Pascual Lozano should be put to death for firing the shots that killed a 9-year-old girl.

The penalty phase of Lozano's capital murder trial was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. On Friday jurors found Lozano guilty of all counts charged against him, including one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, all with use of a deadly weapon.

As soon as the verdicts were handed down, Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said, "The state will be arguing for the death penalty."

Kane said he could not comment further until the conclusion of the penalty phase.

Lozano's victim, Genesis Gonzales, was struck by a stray bullet in September 2002 as she played in the courtyard of her North Las Vegas apartment complex with her younger siblings and several other children.

Police say Gonzales was trying to protect a 10-month-old boy when she was shot.

Defense attorneys had maintained that Lozano was not the triggerman. They said the gunman was an associate of Lozano's who admitted to being at the scene when the shooting occurred.

Deputy Special Public Defenders Brett Whipple and Ivette Maningo said they were disappointed with the outcome of the case but that they respected the jury's decision.

"Regardless of what happened, it was a terrible accident," Whipple said. "Nobody ever intended for this child to get killed. No one wanted this to happen."

Whipple said he plans to wage a fight to prevent the execution of 24-year-old Lozano.

"We will argue that (Lozano) has value," he said. "This is not a person whose life needs to be taken."

Jurors were instructed by District Judge John McGroarty not to comment on the verdict until after the conclusion of the penalty phase.

After a first-degree murder conviction, prosecutors and defense attorneys argue aggravating and mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase.

Jurors will decide whether Lozano should be put to death, sentenced to prison without parole or with parole after 40 years, Kane said.

They can also choose a fourth option of 40 to 100 years in prison, he said.

During the trial, Kane and Chief Deputy District Attorney Vickie Monroe argued that the bullet that struck Gonzales was actually meant for a man named Robert Valentine.

They say Lozano was chasing Valentine through the courtyard and firing shots at him when Gonzales was shot. Gonzales' 8-year-old sister, Heidi, was shot in the leg during the incident but she survived.

Heidi and the girls' 14-year-old sister, Tannia, testified during the trial, but both girls were unable to identify Lozano as the shooter.

On the stand, Tannia said she was not sure of the ethnicity of the man she saw with a gun near the complex shortly after the shooting.

A state investigator, however, testified that Tannia had initially told him that the man she saw was Hispanic. Lozano is also Hispanic.

During the defense phase of the trial, several witnesses said they saw a black man with a gun flee the scene in a Ford Taurus after the shooting.

Whipple said he believed Gonzales' testimony, and the investigator's subsequent testimony, was a major factor in the jury's decision.

"Tannia Gonzales' testimony was critical," he said. "She was the primary witness to identify the shooter."

The physical evidence against Lozano included a forensic scientist who testified that microscopic particles of gunshot residue were found on the T-shirt that prosecutors say Lozano wore during the shooting. The scientist acknowledged, however, that those particles did not necessarily mean that Lozano had fired a gun. There were no such particles found on Lozano's hands, the scientist testified.

The trial also included testimony from several Clark County Detention Center inmates.

Scott Riddel, a convicted child molester, said Lozano confessed to him that he had accidentally shot a little girl while aiming for another person.

But that testimony was countered by testimony from convicted rapist Steven Newberg and a suspected sex offender, George Dunlap.

Both men testified that Riddel had told them that he planned to lie in his testimony regarding Lozano in order to gain favor with the state.