Woman IDs man charged in slayings

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.

A woman whose female neighbors were sexually assaulted and strangled testified Monday that the man accused of the crimes tried to kiss her in her apartment during the morning of the killings.

Juanita Curry said that between 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on May 4 Norman Flowers knocked on her door on five separate occasions, a time frame during which prosecutors allege Flowers sexually assaulted and killed Marilee Coote, 45, and Rena Gonzales, 25, at the Silver Pines complex.

Coote and Gonzales each were found strangled in their own apartments.

Curry said she knew Flowers because he was the boyfriend of her neighbor, Mawusi Ragland, and had helped her move items into her house before. She said on the day of the killings she first let Flowers in for a drink of water.

Curry said Flowers seemed nervous and told her that he recently told his girlfriend that Curry was attractive. She said he tried to kiss her.

With his advance rebuked, Curry said, Flowers jumped up quickly and left her apartment.

Flowers would later return to her apartment four more times, once to use the bathroom and another time to make several phone calls from outside her apartment on a portable phone, according to Curry.

Curry said each time Flowers left her apartment she saw him walking towards Gonzalez's apartment.

Curry said several police cars were at the apartment complex investigating what she would later learn was Coote's death. She said the interaction between her and Flowers occurred while the police were on the scene. She said Flowers told her that the police activity "made him nervous."

"He was very nervous at my door," Curry said. "He turned his back from the parking lot (where the police cars were parked). He said he was on parole and didn't want any problems."

Flowers, who has prior felony convictions for arson, burglary and robbery with use of a deadly weapon, remains jailed without bail.

The testimony earlier Monday by Dr. Lary Simms, a Clark County medical examiner, may result in additional charges for Flowers. Simms said evidence shows sexual intercourse occurred at after Gonzales had died.

Simms' determination has led Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich Rego to seek two counts of sexual penetration of a corpse.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo said he would hear arguments on the issue on Aug. 16, at which time he is also set to hear closing arguments and issue a decision on whether or not enough evidence exists for Flowers to stand trial.

If Abbatangelo does determine Flowers should stand trial on the charges, prosecutors have said the case will be sent to the district attorney's death penalty review committee to determine whether to seek to have Flowers executed if he is convicted of murder.

Flowers is charged with two counts of murder and sexual assault in the May 4 deaths. But his attorneys argue no evidence exists to link him to Gonzales' death and that Coote's killing was accidental and simply the result of consensual rough sex between Flowers and Coote.

Deputy Public Defender Joe Abood has said Coote died of autoerotic asphyxia, which is the reduction or cutting off of oxygen to the brain during sex.

During the first day of Flowers' preliminary hearing on June 23, Metro criminalist Tom Wahl testified that Flowers DNA was found inside Coote and on the carpet where her body was discovered by police.

Wahl, however, said there was no DNA evidence linking Flowers to the death of Gonzales. He said in examining Gonzales he found a "mixture of DNA" that consisted of Gonzales' DNA and a "trace' amount of an unidentified male DNA.

Wahl also said the blood found on the phone cord used to strangle Gonzales had the same DNA mixture.