Jury told teen killed to stop 911 call

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

Prosecutors told jurors on Thursday that a 16-year-old boy charged with killing a man in a home invasion robbery violently stabbed the homeowner to prevent him from reporting the crime to police.

Mark Ford claims he stabbed 56-year-old Vincent Gomes once in the neck out of fear and panic after Gomes caught him breaking into his home.

But during closing arguments in Ford's four-day trial, Clark County prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci said the teen plunged a kitchen knife about seven inches into Gomes' neck as Gomes was calling 911 to report a robbery.

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."

Jurors began deliberating the teen's fate late Thursday and were expected to continue this morning. Ford faces life in prison with or without parole if convicted.

Ford, who was 15 when the killing occurred, is being 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.

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."

Defense lawyers and Ford acknowledged during the trial that the teen broke into Gomes' home in the Wellington Park gated community near Grand Canyon Drive and Sahara Avenue, where Ford used to be a resident.

They don't dispute that Ford killed Gomes. The only real bone of contention is Ford's intent.

Defense attorneys maintained that Gomes caught the teen trying to break into the home through a bathroom window and held him at bay in the kitchen with a garden tool Ford brought with him. They say the stabbing occurred in the heat of the moment and without premeditation.

"Mark is caught," Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown said. "He's scared. He's panicked. He's trapped. He has no idea what's going to happen."