Jury deadlocked in murder case

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

A Clark County jury on Tuesday convicted a 27-year-old alleged gang member on three counts of attempted murder for using an assault rifle to shoot at police officers, but jurors were deadlocked on whether he committed murder with the same gun a day earlier.

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

The jury was unable to break a 9-3 split in favor of Moten's acquittal on the murder charge, which will be retried before a new jury after his sentencing scheduled for Dec. 1. He also will be sentenced for one count of an ex-felon possessing a firearm, to which he pleaded guilty to after the verdict was issued on Tuesday.

The murder charge will be retried after Moten's Dec. 1 sentencing. He also will be sentenced for being an ex-felon possessing a gun, to which he pleaded guilty after the verdict.

Prosecutors alleged Moten was the gunman responsible for killing Jackson, who was shot during a car chase on June 15, 2003, when the car he was in was sprayed with bullets from an assault weapon.

A forensics expert testified that the bullets used in Jackson's shooting came from the same assault rifle used by Moten when he shot several rounds at police officers the following evening.

The defense argued Moten was not involved in killing Jackson and that he purchased the weapon from a man who fit the description a witness gave of the man who killed Jackson.

Each of the three witnesses during Moten's roughly weeklong trial offered different descriptions of Jackson's shooter. Moten's fingerprints were never found on the weapon.

Prosecutors, however, were able to convince the jury, that Moten used the assault rifle to fire at several police officers at an apartment complex at the 2000 block of Lake Mead Boulevard near Martin Luther King Boulevard. One officer testified he fired two shots at Moten in self-defense. Moten was struck once in the side and later taken to the hospital after being placed in custody.