Boy, 16, found guilty of murder

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 11:36 a.m.

Jurors convicted a 16-year-old boy of second-degree murder this morning in the stabbing death of a Las Vegas man, a verdict the the teen's family members called a "small victory."

Jurors returned the guilty verdict this morning in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom. They also found Ford guilty of burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon.

Jurors acquitted the teen on a single count of home invasion.

The charges stemmed from the Feb. 24, 2003, killing of 56-year-old Vincent Gomes. Authorities said Ford stabbed Gomes in the neck after breaking into his home in a gated community near Grand Canyon Drive and Sahara Avenue, where Ford was a former resident.

Ford faces 20 years to life in prison when he is sentenced by Bonaventure on April 8.

During the four-day trial before Bonaventure, prosecutors had urged jurors to find Ford guilty of first-degree murder. They said the teen broke into the home through a window and violently attacked Gomes when he discovered him home.

But Ford's mother, Ramune Rodgers, maintains the stabbing was not intentional. She said she was relieved by the verdict.

"What my son did was wrong, but he deserves a second chance," she said.

Defense attorneys claimed Ford stabbed Gomes out of fear and panic when an angry Gomes cornered the teen in his kitchen and threatened to call police. They insisted that Ford did not intend to kill Gomes and that the killing was not a first-degree murder.

Ford testified during the trial. He said he broke into the house looking for money and that he only intended to cut Gomes when he lunged at him with the knife.

Rodgers said she has not had the opportunity to talk to her son about the details of the killing, but she said she is sure he is not a cold-hearted killer.

"I know Mark would never kill someone if he hadn't been pushed in a corner and scared and terrified," she said.

Outside court Ford's 21-year-old sister, Donata Ford, said she is not sure if her brother can fully comprehend the amount of time he will spend behind bars because of his youth.

"He's 16 years old," she said. "Just thinking that he might spend more time in prison than he's been on this earth is the most painful for us."

During closing arguments in the case on Thursday, prosecutors told jurors that the teen plunged a kitchen knife seven inches into Gomes' neck to prevent him from reporting the crime to police.

Clark County prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci played for jurors a 911 recording in which Gomes is heard telling the operator that someone has broken into his home. There is a sound of a struggle and the line goes dead.

"There's a gaping wound in (Gomes') neck because he didn't see it coming," Pesci said.

Pesci said the teen, who admitted to committing several other burglaries in the neighborhood, caught the homeowner off guard and aimed to kill.

"Was it absolutely necessary to plunge that knife seven inches into his neck?" Pesci asked jurors. "He wanted to stop his crime, his burglary, from being reported."

Ford, who was 15 when the killing occurred, was tried in the adult system. In Nevada teens 8 and older who are charged with murder or attempted murder are automatically charged as adults. Teens 16 and older are eligible for the death penalty.

But Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown told jurors to remember his client's youth and immaturity when rendering a verdict.

"Mark is a boy," he said. "Despite the horrible mistake he made that day, Mark is still a boy. He thinks like a boy, he acts like a boy, he reacts like a boy."

Rodgers said she is aware of her son's history of breaking into people's homes. She said her son, who was born in Lithuania, began to rebel after his father committed suicide several years ago.

"He just started rebelling after his father died," she said. "I feel guilty too. It was just hard to spend enough time with him."