Man accused of killing with AK-47 goes on trial

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

The trial began Tuesday for a 27-year-old alleged gang member whom prosecutors accuse of using an AK-47 assault rifle to kill a man and shoot at police officers.

Samuel Moten is charged with murder in the death of Marcel Travel Jackson, 27, during a car chase on June 15, 2003, and of seven counts of attempted murder in connection with shots being sprayed from the assault weapon at Metro and North Las Vegas police officers the following evening.

"The weapon, which is feared most by police officers on the street, was the weapon of choice for Samuel Moten," Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said during opening arguments.

DiGiacomo said Jackson was accompanying his friend Tyrone Washington, 31, to visit the mother of Washington's child when two men in a yellow Lincoln threw a "40-ounce bottle of beer" at their car and began staring at them.

The prosecutor alleged that Moten, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the Lincoln, started "spraying the car with rounds" from an AK-47. He said Washington then sped away, but not before noticing Jackson had been shot.

DiGiacomo told the jury a car chase started during which Moten continued to shoot at the Lincoln. Although only eight shell casings that match the gun were recovered that day, DiGiacomo said evidence shows about 30 shots were fired.

DiGiacomo said the jury would hear the testimony of a witness who identified Moten as the shooter from a police line-up.

DiGiacomo said about 12:45 a.m. on June 16, 2003, police officers spotted Moten holding an assault rifle at an apartment complex at the 2000 block of Lake Mead Boulevard near Martin Luther King Boulevard. He told the jury that the officers got out of their car and approached Moten, who turned and pointed the rifle at them. One of the officers fired two shots and Moten was struck once in the side.

Moten hid in an empty apartment where he remained for about four hours as negotiators tried to persuade him to surrender, the prosecutor said. A police SWAT team was required to bring him under arrest, according to DiGiacomo.

At the scene, authorities recovered an AK-47 rifle, which forensics experts later determined was the weapon used in the slaying of Jackson.

Moten was arrested and underwent surgery at University Medical Center for a gunshot wound in the torso.

Special Public Defender Alzora Jackson said that while "clearly someone killed Marcel Jackson, the evidence will clearly show that someone was not Samuel Moten."

Jackson added that before Moten's arrest, "He was shooting that day but not at police officers and not with the intent to murder anyone."

The defense attorney said the case would boil down to a "question of identification." She said three witnesses would testify seeing people who fit three different descriptions as being the shooter who killed Marcel Jackson.

She said one witness said the shooter wore "ponytails" in his hair, another said the shooter was bald or wore a "skull cap" and had no ponytail and a third said the shooter had a small afro and a red, white and black bandana on his head.

Alzora Jackson said police officers never singled out Moten as a suspect in the killing during the night they were patrolling, but instead were seeking him because an "absolutely false flier" had been circulated with Moten's picture on it proclaiming him to be a terminally ill cancer patient who wanted to kill a police officer before dying.

Alzora Jackson said Moten may have "had a few beers" and did fire several shots out of the AK-47 rifle, but he did so before the police ever arrived at the scene. She said he never shot it at police officers.

Moten said he purchased the weapon from a man who fit the description a witness gave of the man who killed Jackson, according to Alzora Jackson.

Additionally Alzora Jackson said police officers at the scene said there were two shooters, one with a handgun and one with a rifle. She reasoned there was no way to confuse an AK-47 rifle with a handgun, meaning there must have been another shooter at the scene who shot at police.