Murder trial delayed for couple accused in bloody stomping death of Las Vegas man

By Dave Toplikar

Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 | 2:26 p.m.

A murder trial that was to have started today for a man and a woman accused in the robbery, beating and stomping death of Brian Haskell, a 68-year-old Las Vegas man, has been delayed until next spring.

At the request of attorneys, Clark County District Judge Douglas Smith has reset the trial for Will Sitton, 48, and Jacquie Schafer (also known as Jackie Napoli), 47, for March 26, 2012. Both are being held in the Clark County Detention Center without bail.

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

According to an arrest report, 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 had died about two weeks earlier.

A third defendant, Sitton's brother, Robert Sitton, 34, testified against the two during a preliminary hearing in March 2010. The younger Sitton made a plea agreement in February 2010 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 to commit robbery. Robert Sitton is scheduled to have a status check on his case on Sept. 14.

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 woman, later identified as Schafer, move into Haskell's unit about the end of August 2009.

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

Investigators said neighbors told them during the time Schafer lived there that a man, 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 man helped to move Schafer "in haste" out of the unit in garbage bags. One of the neighbors spoke with the second man, 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.