Trial reset for couple accused in stomping death of Las Vegas man

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010 | 3:32 p.m.

A jury trial that was to have begun this week for two people accused in the beating and stomping death of a 68-year-old Las Vegas man has been delayed for 10 months.

Clark County District Judge Douglas Smith has reset the the murder, robbery and burglary trial for Will Sitton and Jacquie Schafer for Aug. 8, 2011.

According to court records, at a pre-trial conference last week, attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense asked for a continuance for the trial, which they said is expected to last two weeks.

Sitton and Schafer, both 47, are charged with multiple felonies including murder, robbery and burglary. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sitton.

According to an arrest report, Brian Haskell was found dead with bloody footwear prints on his body in November 2009 in his condominium near Rainbow and Oakey boulevards. Prosecutors believe he died about two weeks earlier.

A third defendant, Sitton's brother, Robert Sitton, 33, testified against the two during a preliminary hearing in March. The younger Sitton made a plea agreement in February in which he made a deal to testify against his brother and Schafer in exchange for pleading guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder of a victim 60 or older and conspiracy.

According to a police report, officers were called Nov. 14, 2009, to do a welfare check on Haskell and found his decomposing body in the master bedroom of the residence at 1400 Santa Margarita, Unit D.

Homicide detectives said neighbors told them they had seen a female, later identified as Schafer, move into Haskell's unit about the end of August 2009.

Officers said letters in the residence indicted there was an ongoing dispute between Haskell and Schafer.

In one of the letters, Haskell accused Schafer of entering his room when he wasn't present and other violations of his privacy. Haskell said in the letter those violations had led him to put a dead bolt on his bedroom door, investigators said.

Schafer had written notes back to Haskell stating she was not in his room, except one time when he was not present and she was upset about his accusations, police said.

Investigators said neighbors told them during the time Schafer lived there that a male, later identified as Will Sitton, started hanging around and appeared to be Schafer's boyfriend.

A neighbor told police that on Oct. 29, 2009, Sitton and another male helped to move Schafer "in haste" out of the unit in garbage bags. One of the neighbors spoke with the second male, who told him he was helping his brother move his girlfriend out of the unit.

Officers said when Haskell's body was examined, detectives noted there were footwear patterns in blood on the body. They said there were two distinct patterns on the body and possibly a third print. Bloody footwear prints were also on debris on the floor of the bedroom next to the body, investigators said.

The police report said an autopsy found that Haskell died from blunt force trauma.

According to the police report, when officers interviewed Schafer, she told them that Haskell had made several passes at her and grabbed her several times. She said she had told Will Sitton about the passes and Sitton had threatened to "slap Haskell around," but she had asked him to just help her move out of the residence.

During a preliminary hearing, Robert Sitton said he remembered seeing his brother and Schafer both beat Haskell.

Along with the slaying, the defendants are charged with taking Haskell's 1998 Cadillac STS and also other items belonging to Haskell, including checks, a laptop computer and a television.