News briefs for April 21, 2004

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

Man arrested in restroom beatings

A 42-year-old Las Vegas man was arrested Tuesday, accused of following women into public restrooms at downtown casinos and then beating and robbing them, Metro Police said.

Anthony Strickland, a convicted sex offender, was charged with eight felonies, including two counts each of robbery, burglary and battery with substantial bodily harm.

The robberies occurred March 25 at the Golden Nugget and April 15 at Main Street Station. In both cases police allege Strickland followed women into the bathroom, attacked and robbed them and then fled. In both robberies the women had to be hospitalized due to their "severe injuries," Sgt. Barry Oaks of Metro's robbery section said.

Woman killed by car identified

A woman who was hit by a car and killed Sunday morning as she was retrieving something from her car as it was parked on Christy Lane near Charleston Boulevard has been identified as Winefrida Paredes, 45, of Las Vegas.

Police said Paredes was leaning into her car parked in front of her house when 32-year-old Ronaldo Espinosa allegedly struck her with his vehicle. He fled but was quickly apprehended.

He was charged with felony driving under the influence and other offenses.

Two enter pleas in girl's death

Two men accused of killing a 13-year-old North Las Vegas girl with a stray bullet pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning before District Judge John McGroarty.

Robert Earl Hayes, 22, and Todd Dominic Johnson, 18, are charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon in the shooting death Nov. 20 of Tanisha Turner.

Prosecutors allege that the two were shooting at other men when a stray bullet struck Turner. The teenager was walking home through her neighborhood near West Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards.

The two men are also charged with attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, discharging a firearm at or into a structure or vehicle, and possession of a firearm by an ex-felon.

Hayes was on probation for a 2002 felony charge of possession of a controlled substance.

The two are scheduled to go to trial Dec. 13.

A man who was killed Monday

night as he tried to walk across the Las Vegas Beltway near Flamingo Road has been identified by the Clark County coroner's office as 32-year-old Dylan Dewitt Lee of Las Vegas. A car hit Lee with such force that he went through the windshield and landed in the front passenger seat, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.