Las Vegas man to be sentenced in October for roommate’s shooting death

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011 | 1:34 p.m.

A Las Vegas man who admits he fatally shot his roommate, 48-year-old Darrin Moore, in early January 2009 is no longer looking at the death penalty.

Thanks to a deal he made with the Clark County District Attorney’s office, Perry Danley, 48, will instead be facing a long term in the Nevada State Prison system — possible life imprisonment — when he is sentenced in October.

Danley, whose expected two-week death penalty trial was to have begun this week before Judge Valerie Adair, told the judge Monday he has decided to change his plea to guilty to the charge of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.

Adair set his sentencing for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 20.

Under the plea agreement, Danley is no longer subjected to capital punishment, which a jury could have imposed on him if he had decided to go to trial and was convicted. In the deal he made, prosecutors agreed not to seek capital punishment at his sentencing, but will still have the right to argue the length of his sentence.

The different sentences Danley could face are life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, or life with the possibility of parole, with parole eligibility beginning at 20 years, or a definite prison term of 50 years with eligibility of parole beginning at 20 years.

Danley has been held without bail in the Clark County Detention Center since he was arrested Jan. 27, 2009, by Metro Police detectives.

According to police, a landlady who arrived at her rental property at about 1:30 p.m. Jan. 27, 2009, discovered the body of Moore, of Las Vegas, who had been reported as a missing person two weeks earlier. The landlady found Moore's body in a closet of his rented room, police said.

Metro Police homicide detectives investigated and learned that Danley and the victim had been roommates and that the victim had apparently been shot. Moore died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Clark County Coroner's Office said.

Danley asked Metro Police officers to place him in handcuffs after they arrived at a residence in the 1700 block of Adra Court near West Oakey Boulevard and South Rancho Drive, police said.