Neighbors remember slain 13-year-old

Lynn Doan

Thursday, July 1, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

Neighbors knew 13-year-old Jesse Riggle as the boy who mowed their lawns for food.

Riggle, who was killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday night, would walk door-to-door and ask for work in return for money that he could spend at the nearest grocery store, neighbors said.

"He would work eight hours for five bucks because he was hungry," said neighbor Leslie Cooper, 20, whose husband would sometimes drive Jesse to the grocery store at the end of the day.

She said Jesse would spend holidays at her home and come by her family's barbecues.

Police are investigating the shooting and neighbors say he was a good kid who was sometimes troubled.

Metro Police Sgt. Rick Barela said there were three runaway incidents recorded from the Riggles' home since last year. However, Barela said there is no way of knowing whether the runaway was Jesse or another child who has lived in the Riggles' residence.

Patty Gustin, who lives next door to the Riggles, said Jesse would show up at her door in the middle the night and ask to stay over. Gustin said she would prepare Jesse food and let him watch her fish until his parents fell asleep. Then, he would sneak back into his room through a window.

During the day, Cooper said Jesse would show up at her place at least three to four times, sometimes crying.

"Poor kid had a(n) (expletive) life, nothing to look forward to," Cooper said. "He'd come over with snot dripping down his face and ask to use the phone."

Cooper said she and her husband called Child Protective Services numerous times, but she said nothing ever happened.

Ann Rubin, who is the manager of Child Protective Services in Las Vegas, said she could not comment specifically on Jesse's case because police are still investigating his death. Neglect allegations are not part of that investigation, agency officials said.

Rubin said reports of abuse are investigated by the agency within three days and are only dismissed if the report is inconsistent with those from family members, teachers and neighbors.

"A lot of the times, especially with older kids, they tell neighbors one thing about how they got their bruises, and then we get out there and they tell us the exact opposite," Rubin said.

In that case, Rubin said, the case is closed.

Cooper said she regrets that she could not do more for Jesse, who school district officials said attended South Continuation School, an alternative school.

"I should have adopted him," said Cooper, shaking her head. "If I had adopted him, then he wouldn't have been out so late (on the night of his murder). He'd be at home, getting ready for school."

Metro Police Sgt. Ken Hefner said police received a 911 call about 10:45 p.m. reporting that Jesse had been shot in the driveway of a house on the 6100 block of Evergreen Avenue, which is two blocks down from his home.

Hefner said Jesse and several other young adults were gathered in the front of the house when a black male in his early 20s shot several times from a white Dodge Stratus. Police believe the gunman might have been targeting someone else.

"All we know is that some people, who are cowards, shot an innocent kid," said a man living in the home where Jesse was shot. The man didn't give his name.

Jesse's mother, Julie Riggle, refused to comment about her son's death, but while pacing what little space was left around the furniture in her small, dimly lit living room, shuffling through scraps of paper and debris scattered on the floor, she said, "Jesse was a good kid, but he had ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)."

She said that "when he didn't take his pills, he would, you know," then she punched her fists into the air like a boxer.

But that isn't the Jesse whom Gustin said she would remember.

Gustin, who once dyed Jesse's hair because he wanted to look like rap artist Eminem, said the boy who mowed her lawn for food was "very smart, very cool."

Anyone who has information about the shooting can call police at 229-3521 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.