News briefs for December 3, 2004

Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

Flu shot clinic wraps up today

The Clark County Health District saw a small jump Thursday in the number of people who lined up for their flu shots.

The Health District administered 2,801 flu shots during its clinic from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, up from the 2,559 administered Wednesday, Jennifer Sizemore, a spokeswoman for the county agency, said.

The Health District has administered 8,639 total doses but has enough left over to make it through the day today, Sizemore said.

The line, which wrapped around the Health District's building at 625 Shadow Lane on Tuesday morning, had tamed Wednesday and Thursday, Sizemore said.

Today was the last day for the clinic, which runs until 4:30 p.m., she said.

Breast implant suit reinstated

The Nevada Supreme Court Thursday reinstated a lawsuit by a Las Vegas woman against companies that manufactured and distributed silicone breast implants.

The court reversed the ruling of Senior District Judge Norman Robison, who ordered the suit of Glenda Wilson dismissed on grounds she had not brought the case to trial within five years.

In light of its Thursday decision, the court instructed the District Court that Wilson must be given a "reasonable period of time to set and bring her case to trial" if the defendants act expeditiously.

The defendants named in the appeal were American Heyer-Schulte Corp; American Hospital Supply; Baxter Healthcare Corp and Baxter International Inc., all Delaware corporations.

Wilson maintains the silicone breast implants were "defective and unreasonably dangerous" and she suffered injury.

Botzet to face combined charges

The woman charged with killing her diabetic daughter by depriving her of insulin may see her murder charges consolidated with charges from another case that she committed additional crimes against her daughter.

District Judge Sally Loehrer is expected to decide if Cheryl Botzet, also known as Cheryl Musso, should be tried for both murder and the more recently filed charges of child abuse and neglect, acting with willful or wanton disregard for safety, and battery with a deadly weapon in the same trial.

Loehrer will hear arguments and issue a ruling on the prosecution's motion to consolidate the two cases on Dec. 8.

The additional charges are currently the subject of a case before District Judge Valorie Vega.

She faces the charge of murder for the death of 11-year-old Ariel Botzet from ketoacidosis, caused by untreated diabetes, and that trial is scheduled for March.

Botzet is currently out of custody on $35,000 bail.

Perry sentenced to life in killing

The last of the three men convicted of murdering and robbing a man who was walking home from the grocery store was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison by District Judge Michelle Leavitt on Thursday.

Steven "Little Mizz" Perry, 18, was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery for the killing of Benito Zambrano-Lopez, who was walking home from a neighborhood market when he was attacked on June 8, 2003.

Prosecutors said Perry and two friends, Tyrone Williams and Julius Bradford, conspired to rob the 48-year-old laborer, then shot him repeatedly when he resisted. Williams and Bradford were both convicted earlier this year.

Rape suspect from Florida arrested

Detectives with the Metro Police fugitive detail arrested a 25-year-old man wanted for raping a woman in Florida and making threats over the telephone toward a police sergeant investigating the crime.

Luis Marcello Harris, also known as Luis Munuzuri, was taken into custody Monday outside his home at 9999 W. Katie Ave. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and is awaiting extradition to Deland, Fla.

Lt. Jim Moses said Harris, a former participant in the Deland Police Explorer program, burglarized a home in 2000 and sexually assaulted a woman.

With financial help from his family, police said he moved to Las Vegas about a year ago to avoid arrest. While on the run he allegedly called a sergeant continually and made threats.

When he was taken into custody Monday, he was with a woman who told police she met Harris on the Internet in a chat room advertising for a roommate. She had lived with him for the past week and had no knowledge of his criminal history, Moses said.

Driver injured in SUV crash

An 18-year-old Las Vegas woman was critically injured this morning when she was thrown from her GMC Jimmy on Industrial Road near Serene Avenue, Metro Police said.

Ashly Wyllie was heading north on Industrial at a high rate of speed just after midnight when she drifted toward the curb, over-corrected and lost control, police said. The vehicle rolled over and Wyllie was ejected.

She was not wearing a seat belt, police said. Alcohol and speed appear to be factors in the crash.

Airman sentenced in molestation case

A 40-year-old former technical sergeant stationed at Nellis Air Force Base was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in prison for molesting three girls.

James Wheaton, assigned to the 99th Air Base Wing in the Civil Engineering Squadron, entered a plea agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault with a minor and three counts of lewdness with a minor.

Upon his arrest in April Wheaton was originally charged with 10 counts of sexual assault with a minor under 14, 12 counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14 and 13 counts of sexual assault with a minor under 16.

There were three victims in in the case. Wheaton allegedly abused his victims for more than a year.

The man and woman found stabbed

to death Wednesday in an apartment on the 4600 block of West Oakey Boulevard have been identified as Charles Wright, 23, and Chanthan Keo, 22. Metro Police are still investigating whether this is a case of murder-suicide or if the pair were murdered.