Police: Lawyer tied to slaying of informant
A Las Vegas lawyer has been linked to the April killing of a police informant, records show.
William Gamage, 51, faces one count of harboring, concealing or aiding a felony offender in connection with the April 8 death of 30-year-old Bailey Kay Beck, according to his arrest report.
Gamage, who faces theft charges in a separate case, is accused of hiding the woman’s cellphone in a storage unit and refusing to turn it over to Las Vegas police detectives. His arrest report does not explain how he obtained the phone.
Court records show that Gamage was granted release on his own recognizance in the case involving the homicide, but he remained in custody Monday at the Clark County Detention Center on the theft charges.
Gamage was arrested July 2, the same day a warrant was issued for his ex-wife, lawyer Amy Gamage,
LAWYER
Minkler’s body in a downstairs closet under a plastic sheet, according to testimony and court documents.
On the door of the closet, someone had spray-painted the words “(Expletive) Matt.”
Caruso and Harlan also took about $300 from Minkler’s wallet and used it to buy a pair of shoes and drugs, the documents allege.
Harlan’s lawyer, Keith Brower, pointed to testimony suggesting that the teen appeared to be asleep at the time the gunshot struck Minkler in the chin.
Caruso’s attorney, Bill Terry, meanwhile, pointed out that witnesses reported his client pointing the Ruger .357-caliber revolver at himself.
Another shot blew a hole in the ceiling of the abandoned home in the 2000 block of Cool Lilac Avenue before Minkler was killed.
Terry argued that prosecutors had not presented “even a scintilla of evidence of a plan to rob Matthew” and that there was no evidence of malice on the part of Caruso.
Several teens in the home at the time, including Minkler, had been drinking alcohol, taking Xanax and smoking marijuana, according to Monday’s testimony.
Toward the end of the hearing, the image of Minkler’s body with a pool of blood around his head flashed on a television screen in Justice of the Peace Sam Bateman’s courtroom.
Caruso had videotaped the June 8 scene with his cellphone camera, which he quickly pointed at himself.
“Bro,” he said, “I just caught a body.”
Harlan told police after his arrest that Caruso had shot Minkler in the face during a “modified” version of Russian roulette.
Henderson police detectives arrested a third teen who they believe was present when Minkler was shot. That suspect, a juvenile who has not been identified, faces charges of destroying evidence and accessory to murder.
Bateman ruled that a jury should decide whether Caruso and Harlan are guilty of murder with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon. Harlan also faces one count of accessory to murder with a deadly weapon.
Surrounded by family and friends, Minkler’s mother, Jamie Shanklin, sat in the second row of the courtroom gallery, with a heart-shaped, green, speckled stone containing her son’s ashes pressed against her cheek.
“We’re going to bring them every time so he can see his justice being done,” she said afterward. “This is a good start. I feel like Matthew is going to get justice.”
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.