Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Convicted killer acquitted of murder
A jury has found convicted murderer Shawn Eisenman not guilty of shooting a Las Vegas woman dead and firing bullets toward her sister and friend while they were on the front porch of a home in 2016.
After 11 days of deliberations, the panel on Thursday delivered not guilty verdicts for Eisenman on charges of murdering Ladonna Metais, 46, and assault with a deadly weapon against Metais’ sister Pauline O’dell and Cynthia Forresta, who were not injured, according to Clark County District Court documents.
They also acquitted Eisenman, 37, of felony counts of discharging a firearm at or into an occupied structure, firing from or within a structure or vehicle, and extortion.
Betsy Allen, one of Eisenman’s defense attorneys in the nearly seven-year case, said that it was a mistake for the Clark County district attorney’s office to tell jurors to consider the death penalty if they were to find Eisenman guilty of murder.
“I think they made the right decision,” Allen said of the verdicts. “The death penalty should not have been filed in this case. This was not a death penalty case.”
The district attorney’s office could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Prosecutors alleged that on July 3, 2016, Eisenman drove to a home at 5720 N. Campbell Road, drew a firearm and fired three shots from the vehicle toward Metais, O’dell and Forresta.
Metais was struck in the head and pronounced dead soon afterward at a hospital. Other rounds missed O’dell and Forresta but penetrated the residence and lodged inside the home, where a man, Jack Paripovich, and children were present.
O’dell and Forresta said they spotted a dark, two-door car stopped in front of the house before the shooting, but no suspect or motive was identified at the time.
The jury on Thursday found Eisenman guilty of one felony count of extorting Metais and Paripovich.
Eisenman is serving a life sentence at the High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs for killing 27-year-old Cameron Ryan.
On Dec. 9, 2015, Eisenman was at a residence near Lone Mountain Road and U.S Highway 95 when he shot Ryan as he was walking on a dirt access road, prosecutors said.
Allen said that her client’s appeal of his conviction in Ryan’s slaying is being considered by the Nevada Supreme Court.