Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

News briefs for December 15, 2004

Fire blamed on portable heater

An improperly used portable heater is responsible for the fire Tuesday morning that gutted a Las Vegas apartment and left two families homeless, fire department officials said.

About 35 firefighters from the Clark County and North Las Vegas departments responded to the fire, which started about 10:30 Tuesday morning at the Nellis Arms apartment complex at 4320 Las Vegas Blvd. North, just north of Nellis Boulevard.

The two-alarm blaze appeared to have started in the upstairs apartment belonging to an adult and three children, said Bob Leinbach, a spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department.

It was confined to the apartment, one of 76 in the complex, but a family of four in the unit below also lost their home to water damage from fire hoses, Leinbach said.

No one was injured, he said.

The fire was the third such apartment blaze firefighters have responded to since Monday. All told, the fires have caused more than $155,000 damage.

Court denies killer's appeal

The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the appeal of Timothy Grimaldi, who was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the 1971 killing of a cabdriver in Las Vegas.

Grimaldi maintained there was insufficient evidence at his trial to convict him of the killing of Glen Kelley on New Year's Day in 1971. Grimaldi, who was 17 at the time, and his partner, John Tiffany, who was 18, stabbed and shot Kelley and then stole his cab. They were captured in Kingman, Ariz.

Tiffany also was sentenced to life in prison.

The Supreme Court, in rejecting the appeal of Grimaldi, said it should have been filed within seven days after the guilty verdict in 1972.

Inmate captured in California

Authorities in California on Tuesday apprehended a convicted burglar who had fled from the Indian Springs Conservation Camp earlier this month.

Danny Bounsall, 51, was serving a six-year sentence for burglary and was scheduled to be released in 2006.

Authorities apprehended him in Los Angeles without incident, and he is expected to be returned to Nevada by the end of the week, according to a statement released by the Nevada Corrections Department.

No details of his apprehension were available on Tuesday.

The Corrections Department statement said Bounsall is facing no new charges in California.

Bounsall, who allegedly walked away from the minimum-security facility at 5 a.m. on Dec. 4, could receive an additional eight years, Howard Skolnik, the assistant director of the department of corrections, said earlier this month.

The Indian Springs Conservation Camp is a minimum-security facility that houses about 160 inmates.

WestCare getting sports facilities

The WestCare Nevada Women and Children's Campus, 5659 Duncan Drive, is getting a new basketball and volleyball court for women and adolescents to use at the treatment facility.

The court was built through funds from local businesses such as Nevada Ready Mix, Cashman Equipment Rental, Rice Construction and 14 others, according to a statement from WestCare. It is to be formally opened on Friday.

The WestCare facility helps women dealing with drug addictions and offers "crisis intervention" for runaways and homeless adolescents as well as a variety of other treatments for young women and youths.

WestCare is a nonprofit organization that serves individuals and families suffering from mental illness or who are indigent, according to the statement.

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