Witness collapses at hearing in death of 13-year-old

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, March 5, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.

A preliminary hearing for two men charged with firing the shots that killed a 13-year-old North Las Vegas girl was postponed on Thursday after a key witness collapsed on the witness stand.

Mabel Miles was expected to testify that she saw Robert Earl Hayes, 21, and Todd Dominique Johnson, 18, fire shots in a neighborhood near West Lake Mead and North Martin Luther King boulevards.

The men face murder and other charges in the Nov. 20 shooting death of Tanisha Turner.

"She (Miles) gave a recorded statement in which she specifically said she saw two men shooting and she picked these two men out of a photo lineup," Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said.

But Miles was on the witness stand less than 10 minutes when she suffered an apparent seizure. It was unclear whether a previous medical condition contributed to the attack.

Court staff cleared the courtroom, which was filled with family members of Turner and the defendants, and called an ambulance. Miles was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher and was transported to a local hospital.

Justice of the Peace Natalie Tyrrell heard from several other witnesses following the incident, but postponed the remainder of the hearing until March 17.

If Miles is unable to testify at that time, prosecutors will present alternate witnesses to corroborate her expected testimony, Kane said.

During her brief testimony on Thursday, Miles, who has lived in the 2000 block of Hassell Street where the shooting occurred for 42 years, said she heard gunshots the evening of Nov. 20 and came outside.

"I saw two young men running," she said.

A family member then told her that a young girl had been killed, she said. Miles had the seizure in the seconds following that testimony.

Michael Bodnar, a North Las Vegas homicide detective, said he took a recorded statement from Miles in the weeks following the shooting.

In her statement Miles said she saw two men fire shots, Bodnar said. She identified those men as Hayes and Johnson in a photo lineup.

Miles also indicated that the men were exchanging gunfire with a group of Hispanic men who were down the street from where the shooting occurred, Bodnar said.

"At some point she (Miles) hears someone say, 'Stop, stop, we hit somebody,' " Bodnar said.

Bodnar said several other neighbors, many of them anonymous, also linked Hayes and Johnson to the shooting.

"I probably got no less than 20 different phone calls indicating that these people were involved," he said.

Hayes and Johnson appeared in court with their attorneys, Darren Richards, of the county's special public defender's office, and Pete Christiansen, respectively. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Bodnar said both men initially denied any involvement in the shooting when he took separate recorded statements from them in early December. Eventually, he said, both admitted to some role in the shooting.

Bodnar said Hayes told him that he was outside Johnson's house on Hassell Street when he got into a confrontation with a group of men, Bodnar said.

Hayes allegedly told Bodnar that he pulled a handgun from under a car parked in front of the house and fired six to seven shots.

"As they drove down the street, he started shooting at their car," Bodnar said. "He told me that the right passenger was hanging out the window shooting."

Bodnar said Johnson told him that he witnessed the shooting but that Hassell was the triggerman.

"He (Johnson) said he gave the gun to Robert Hayes and he did the shooting," Bodnar said.

Bodnar said neither Hayes nor Johnson intended to shoot Turner. Authorities were not able to find the group of men the pair referred to.

Turner's death was reminiscent of the death of another North Las Vegas girl who was killed when she was caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout in September 2002.

Jurors convicted Pascual Lozano in the slaying of 9-year-old Genesis Gonzales and sentenced him to death. A district judge recently overturned that conviction, however, and ordered a new trial for Lozano.

Johnson and Hayes' arrests came after area business owners and members of Metro Police's Bolden Area Command/Police Advisory Committee offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tanisha's killer or killers.

A North Las Vegas Police spokesman said it was still unclear whether the reward money was paid.