Killing of housing guard is detailed

Monday, April 4, 2005 | 8:54 a.m.

Prosecutors in opening arguments Friday said a 22-year-old alleged gang member killed a security guard outside a Las Vegas Housing Authority complex because the apartments were the shooter's turf and no one was going to make him leave.

Markette Tillman is charged with murder in the Jan. 20 shooting of 29-year-old Brian Wilcox of Henderson at the Sherman Annex Apartments on the 1700 block of H St.

Deputy District Attorney William Barrett said on the night of the killing Wilcox and fellow security guard Jordan Boyd found Tillman and three other men, who had been banned from the property for repeatedly trespassing, at the apartment complex.

He said when Boyd told them to leave Tillman made a threat saying "you guys better leave before you die."

Sensing they were outnumbered, Boyd and Wilcox opted to return to their office to get backup, according to Barrett.

As Wilcox and the other guard raced away on their bicycles, someone, who prosecutors contend was Tillman, shot at them.

The prosecutors said as the two guards headed back to the security office "five shots rang out" with the first or second shot hitting Wilcox in the back.

The prosecutor said several eyewitnesses at the scene will testify during the trial to seeing Tillman fire the gun and that he had a gun before and after the shooting that night.

Barrett said Tillman's motive for shooting Wilcox was several previous run-ins Tillman had with the security officer. Although Tillman didn't live at the housing complex, the prosecutor said Wilcox and his fellow security guards would routinely find Tillman trespassing at the property.

The prosecutor said in one such incident Tillman spit on one of Wilcox's fellow guards and another time threw bottles and rocks at Wilcox and his colleagues while screaming "you white honkies ain't going to push me off this property again."

Tillman's attorney, Bret Whipple, said Tillman was not the shooter and the evidence would show it was actually one of the other three men with Tillman.