Life without parole handed to crack-dealing killer

By Matt Pordum

Monday, April 4, 2005 | 8:53 a.m.

A 25-year-old crack dealer and alleged gang member has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the execution-style shooting of a crack addict and prostitute.

A Clark County jury took less than one hour Friday to sentence Charles Summers for the Dec. 29, 2003, killing of Donna Diehl at the La Palm Motel on Fremont Street.

The jury had the choice of whether to sentence Summers to death, life without the possibility of parole, life with the possibility of parole or a set term of 50 to 100 years in prison.

District Judge Stewart Bell told the jury he would have "made absolutely the same decision you made."

In a trial that involved testimony from several felons and self-admitted crack users and dealers, Bell said the jurors got a glimpse at "the underbelly of society" and predicted most of those people who fell into that part of society that were involved in the case would either "all be dead or all in prison " within three to five years.

Bell said the jurors made sure a "very dangerous young man will never be a danger to society ever again."

The jurors began hearing testimony in the penalty phase only 45 minutes after Summers was convicted.

Summers, however, chose not to stay in court for the penalty phase or his sentencing and instead opted to be placed back into custody at the Clark County Detention Center.

Summers was in tears and rubbing his hands together as he was being placed in chains. Before being led away by guards he screamed "take care of my sister."

His declaration caused Diehl's older sister, Vicky Rush, to say "what about my sister, what about my sister."

Rush soon after took the stand and said that prior to moving to Las Vegas in July 2001, Diehl had worked six days a week to support herself and three children. She said the children's fathers were all "dead-beat dads."

Rush said after Diehl remarried she decided to follow her new husband to Las Vegas, which resulted in little if any communication between the sisters. She said she received one phone call from jail from Diehl but never heard from her again.

She said even after Diehl's husband moved back to Pittsburgh, Diehl remained in Las Vegas.

"I had a feeling I was never going to see her again," Rush said.

In arguing Summers should be sentenced to death, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo read off Summers' extensive criminal history that included multiple arrests for robbery, battery and possession of stolen vehicles.

The prosecutor said one arrest and conviction in particular showed why Summers should never walk the streets again as a free man. He said in October 1995 Summers was armed and pushed down two older women and stole their purses. DiGiacomo said Summers served roughly five years in prison for the crime and only two years after his release he confronted a police officer while crossing Fremont Street, saying, "I'm an ex-felon and I have a gun."

DiGiacomo said Summers was just as menacing while in custody as he was out. He said Summers was cited some 50 times in prison for his behavior and was found with a handmade weapon in his cell.

"He (Summers) is not safe in prison and not safe out of prison, which is why you (the jury) must sentence him to death," DiGiacomo said.

Special Public Defender Alzora Jackson conceded Summers was a career criminal, but said he was not a man who had "a lot of choices."

"He (Summers) was born in the West side of town to a mother who was an alcoholic, drug addict prostitute and to a father who was an alcoholic and beat her (Summers' mother) for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Jackson said.

Jackson said Summers would go on to witness his father being beaten to death and spend his childhood in Child Protective Services and the juvenile system where he was be molested and beaten.

"The system created this monster (Summers) and then asks you (the jury) to kill him," Jackson said. The special public defender said much of Summers childhood was spent defending his mother, who would get into fights at the Town Tavern and then go home and get him when he was as young a 5-years-old to protect her with bottles and knives. Summers' older sister, 26-year-old Charlotte Summers, said her mother "gave up" on both she and her brother when they were only four and five years old. She said she gave up on them for the "drug life." She discussed a childhood that consisted of living off of taco shells and seeing her mother selling her body for drugs while the children wore dirty clothes and lived in an apartment with no electricity. Charlotte Summers said her brother is "another part of me, my love." She urged the jury not to sentence him to death sayi ng "he's everything to me, I've lost a lot of him already."

In urging the jury not to sentence Summers to death she asked the jury to give a chance to a man who was never given one and said there are "people who care for him, who will visit him and write to him."

Prosecutors argued that Summers became enraged upon arriving at a motel room he had rented to serve as a place to sell crack. He had given strict orders to his drug dealing partner Fred "Ice Cream" Ameen that drugs were only to be sold and not smoked in the room. When he came in the room he found Ameen and others smoking crack.

Prosecutors said Summers then turned to Diehl, who was sitting on the bed with a deck of cards, and asked Ameen "Does she know who I am? Do you know me?"

Ameen proceeded to tell Summers that Diehl knew Summers was "the man," Summers pulled out a gun and "shot in her the head, execution style." He said Summers and another man then fled, according to prosecutors.