News briefs for June 23, 2004

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.

Driver dies after I-15 collision

A 35-year-old Las Vegas man died Tuesday after he lost control of his car near the Spaghetti Bowl interchange and collided with a sport utility vehicle, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

The victim, Eugenio Alfaro, was heading north on Interstate 15 in a 1993 two-door Honda about 8:30 a.m. when he veered into the right shoulder, back into the travel lanes and spun counter-clockwise, Trooper Loy Hixson said.

The Honda entered the path of a 2003 Chevrolet SUV driven by a 38-year-old Las Vegas woman. The impact pushed in the passenger side of the Honda, Hixson said, causing Alfaro to suffer head injuries.

He was taken to University Medical Center where he died about 1:30 p.m.

Neither the driver of the SUV nor her passenger, a 14-year-old girl, was hurt.

The collision caused I-15 north to be closed for about two hours. Troopers were investigating the crash.

Hit-and-run vehicle sought

Metro Police were looking for a vehicle believed to be involved in a hit-and-run collision that killed a 65-year-old Las Vegas woman on Lake Mead Boulevard near Nellis Boulevard as she walked home from her bus stop.

A surveillance video from a nearby auto repair shop shows a 1980s or '90s dark-colored Chevrolet or GMC pickup truck with an extended cab passing through the intersection of Lake Mead and Betty Lane just after Dolores Moose's bus pulls away, Detective Corey Moon said.

The vehicle should have sustained damage to the front end and may have a broken windshield, he said.

The license plate number was not visible because of the camera angle, Moon said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or Moon at 229-3538.

Boulder City water rate hike approved

Boulder City residents can expect to see an extra $1 to $3 on their monthly water bills beginning in September, following a City Council vote Tuesday to offset wholesale water costs.

The increase, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, will increase wholesale water costs by 10 cents per 1,000 gallons, a change that translates to a roughly $1 to $3 increase for most residential customers, Vicki Mayes, acting Boulder City manager, said.

The vote represents the second increase in two years. Council members in 2002 approved an increase to pay for heightened security and personnel costs for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Mayes said. Before that, water costs had not changed since 1982.

Mayes said relatively flat demand, spurred in part by conservation efforts, forced the council to pass the increase on to consumers.

"For the last five years the wholesale costs have increased while the demand has remained relatively flat," she said. "The fact that demand is flat has made wholesale costs rise."

Hearing scheduled on former judge

The state Commission on Judicial Discipline has set Thursday for a hearing to decide what discipline to hand out to Peter LaPorta, a former acting Municipal Court judge and justice of the peace in Henderson.

LaPorta has failed to answer two complaints filed against him by the commission. One alleged he has more than $8,000 in unpaid parking tickets while he was sitting as a pro tem judge. The other accuses him of misappropriating $24,000 from a client.

Since he did not answer either complaint, the commission said Tuesday the allegations are deemed to be true and he is subject to disciplinary action.

"I left the pro-tem positions a good eight to 10 months ago," LaPorta said Wednesday. "I don't understand why they continue to come after me like this, because leaving the bench is the death penalty."

The hearing is at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Sawyer State Office Building.

LaPorta, who is no longer practicing law, said he did not plan to be at the disciplinary hearing on Thursday.

Judge approves suspect's DNA test

District Judge Donald Mosley ruled prosecutors could extract a DNA sample from a 32-year-old man charged with murdering his former girlfriend in the desert in October 2002.

Arie Redeker is scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 3 in connection with the slaying of Skawduan Lannan.

Lannan's parents called police after receiving a call from an employee of a Citicorp day-care center, who said Lannan never picked up her child. While police were at the grandparents home, Redeker drove by in Lannan's car.

After being stopped by the officers, Redeker agreed to cooperate in the investigation.

Containment nears on Virgin fire

The Bureau of Land Management expects to contain by 8 tonight the 8,404-acre wildfire that has been roaring in the Virgin Mountains since June 16.

Firefighters had to dig lines around the flames by hand in the rugged landscape 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dorothy Harvey said.

The fire spread through range land, pinyon-juniper forests and abandoned corrals, but did not threaten any structures, Harvey said.

Five helicopters and firefighters from federal, state and county agencies battled the blaze in the rugged, forested mountains, about 12 miles south of Mesquite, a desert resort town.

The fire crews were up to 472 firefighters by Monday, but the forces were dwindling by Tuesday as other wildland fires broke out in other Western states, Harvey said.

Lightning caused the wildlife, sparking walls of flame that raced through dry timber and brush in a wilderness study area.

Slain house sitter is identified

A house sitter found dead Sunday in a northwest Las Vegas home has been identified as 32-year-old Enrique Martinez-Salas of Las Vegas.

The coroner's office listed the cause of death as "blunt head trauma due to assault," a spokeswoman said.

Martinez-Salas was taking care of his cousin's home while the family went on a weekend vacation. When they returned Sunday, the homeowners found one of their cars missing from their garage and Martinez-Salas dead upstairs.

No arrests have been made.