Man pleads guilty in fatal shooting outside nightclub

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

A 28-year-old man who claimed he shot a man in self-defense while trying to help a woman recover stolen property pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and kidnapping charges for the May 4 killing.

Ramon Iniguez acknowledged that he shot 26-year-old Marc Somers in the parking lot of the Ice Las Vegas nightclub near Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane.

As part of Iniguez's plea agreement the district attorney's office will recommend he be sentenced to consecutive terms of 10 years to life in prison for the murder charge and 6-to-15 years for the kidnapping charge, officials said.

Although neither Special Public Defender Gloria Navarro or Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane would comment on it, Iniguez's comments in court made it sound like another part of the plea agreement calls for his testimony against Julia Jarrell, 34. Jarrell allegedly hired Iniguez to help her retrieve property from Somers.

Iniguez admitted to shooting Somers four times in the back with a .22 caliber hand gun under orders from Jarrell, after Somers "got scared" and ran away from a meeting Jarrell had arranged.

Kane said Iniguez was supposed to serve as the "muscle" in a plan Jarrell had developed to "lure" Somers to the parking lot. Kane said Somers was under the impression he was going to the parking lot to engage in a drug deal, but instead Iniguez and Jarrell confronted him about the stolen property.

"(Jarrell said) 'If Somers tries to leave shoot him. If he tries to get away kill him,' " Iniguez said.

Witnesses to the slaying have identified Jarrell as the driver of a black-colored Altima, which brought Iniguez to the scene of the killing.

In court Monday, Iniguez said he didn't intend to shoot Somers, but after Somers pulled a gun on him he had no choice.