‘An embarrassment to the community’
Three-vehicle collision kills 8-year-old, injures five
A speeding sports car blew a red light and smashed into another car Friday morning, killing an 8-year-old boy, Las Vegas police said.
The crash marked the Metropolitan Police Department’s first traffic death of the Labor Day weekend. It was also “100 percent avoidable,” according to the captain who oversees the Metro’s traffic bureau.
“We’re unfortunately out here at the beginning of a holiday season for our first fatal of the holiday weekend, and quite frankly, this one is an embarrassment to the community,” a visibly upset Capt. Nick Farese told reporters Friday.
In addition to killing the boy, the crash injured five other people, involved three vehicles and resulted in the arrest of the sports car driver, who faces several DUI and reckless-driving charges.
Farese implored drivers to observe posted speed limits and to pay attention to signals and signs.
“I don’t know what else we can say to the community. But I mean, a loss of a child, if that isn’t the catalyst for some reform, for people to slow down and not drink and drive,” Farese said at the scene, trailing off before he could finish his sentence. “A couple of minutes could be the difference between your life or someone else’s life.”
About 8:30 a.m., the driver of a red
CRASH
arrested in connection to the crime that night. Authorities have said both confessed, but the Friday hearing marked the first time any of those conversations were played for the public.
“I didn’t want to do it at first, but I was like, all right, all right,” an emotional Michael said on video.
Changing stories
Liebig initially had been reported missing. But on the night investigators talked to the teens about her disappearance, Michael’s story began to change, the body camera footage showed, and detectives soon learned Liebig was dead.
Michael first described her death as an assisted suicide, noting that she was “always in pain,” the footage showed, and she asked the boys to kill her.
Some time later, his story changed again. This time, he described a plan initiated by his brother, Dakota, according to the footage.
Their mother was asleep on a couch in the family’s living room just before the July attack began, Michael said. He went first, stabbing her in the neck. The woman awoke at that moment.
“And then, right away, she started screaming, ‘No,’ ” Michael said. “She was like, ‘No, no, no.’ I think she said it three or four times. And then, from there, she started, ‘Stop.’ ”
But he didn’t stop, Michael said. He stabbed her about five more times.
“I did feel really bad for doing it,” he told detectives. “I really did. But I
didn’t, I didn’t stop.”
Then his brother, who had been scared to make the first blow, took over, Michael said.
“I started freezing up,” Michael said. “But Dakota, man …”
Michael told police his brother hit Liebig on the head with a hammer about 20 times. A detective asked if their mother was still responsive when this was happening, and Michael said yes.
“He used the hammer to hit her several times until he hit her so hard the hammer flew out of his hand,” Michael added, according to the footage. “And then that’s when he pulled out the knife and started stabbing her in the back of the neck.”
‘We got fed up with her’
It was Michael who told detectives that night where Liebig’s body was buried.
An investigator who testified Friday said that when police pulled up to the spot, they could immediately smell decomposition. She was found buried nearby in a shallow desert grave.
Just like Michael, Dakota at first insisted his mother was missing.
But when investigators told him his brother had confessed, Dakota’s
story changed, too, according to separate body camera footage.
“We got fed up with her because it was just nonstop yelling, screaming, you know,” Dakota told police, the footage showed.
His story was similar: The boys waited until their mother was asleep to attack, Dakota told police.
“I was thinking that the hammer would go through and puncture the brain and that she would just be out,” Dakota added. “But, of course, those things didn’t go as planned. She fought.”
He described a 25- to 30-minute struggle with his mother, during which she called to her sons to help. Dakota guessed that was because she didn’t realize her sons were the ones attacking her.
“And then,” Dakota added, “the last thing she said, I think, was, ‘Is this real?’”
As the videos played, the boys silently sat still in the courtroom, sometimes glancing down at their wrists, latched with silver handcuffs.
The hearing continues Thursday morning at Pahrump Justice Court.
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@ reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby.