News briefs for May 23, 2005

Monday, May 23, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

Fire destroys vacant building

Flames whipped through a vacant, two-story apartment building in downtown Las Vegas late Sunday afternoon, but no one was injured.

Firefighters arrived at Stewart Avenue and Sixth Street about 5:20 p.m. to find the vacant apartment ablaze and called a second alarm to protect nearby vacant structures, fire Capt. Greg Gammon of Las Vegas Fire & Rescue said.

The fire was so intense that firefighters decided not to go inside the vacant building, Gammon said.

Firefighters also confronted a large swarm of Africanized bees that inhabited one of the vacant apartments, Gammon said. Firefighters already had foam in their lines and used it to spray the swarm of bees, killing most of them.

Fire investigators have not determined a cause of the fire. It was learned that the vacant buildings belong to the city. Due to damage and unsafe conditions in the eight-unit complex, the burned-out building would have to be torn down, Gammon said. Leveling the building was expected to take most of the night.

Five killed in highway crash

Five people died Sunday in a head-on collision on U.S. 95 just south of the Nevada state line.

California Highway Patrol investigators say a Toyota sedan was northbound at about 11:30 a.m. when it veered into the path of a southbound Honda Pilot SUV. The impact caused the Toyota to burst into flames, troopers said.

The burned body of one man, unrecognizable, was found inside the Toyota, according to the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office. That office will conduct the autopsy. The car's passenger, Lauren McCormick, 54, of Hemet, Calif., was critically injured and was flown to University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

All four occupants of the SUV were killed. California Highway Patrol troopers identified them as Stephen Costello, 40, Katrina Costello, 37, Andrew Vanderlaske, 39, and Rhonda Vanderlaske, 39, all of Orange, Calif.

Two sentenced in money laundering

An Oregon man and his lawyer will be sentenced in August after pleading guilty Friday to laundering the proceeds of an interstate prostitution business.

Jonathan Duke Flake, 33, and his attorney, Cheryl Chadwick, 55, appeared late Friday before U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt and pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. Flake and two female prostitutes were originally indicted in March 2003, but the indictment was amended in May 2004 to include Chadwick.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Flake ran an interstate prostitution business that recruited young women in Portland, Ore. and brought them to work as prostitutes in Las Vegas. As his attorney, Chadwick allowed Flake to use her bank account to make deposits from the business, court records show.

Flake and Chadwick face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 each. They are to be sentenced by Hunt on Aug. 15.