Witness was assaulted, prosecutor says
Murder trial opens with account of woman’s beating by several people
Aweekafterabodywas found in a vacant northeast valley home last year, a witness to the killing was kidnapped, shot in the head with a pellet gun and sexually assaulted, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
“The message that is being inflicted upon her is ‘don’t snitch,’” Chief Deputy District Attorney David Stanton told jurors. “The defendant being present at these events points to one inescapable conclusion: that this defendant is guilty of first-degree murder.”
The witness told police that she saw 32-year-old Kurtis Richards pull a gun on her friend, Daniel Contreras, on the morning of Oct. 23.
When she ran from the house, she heard the three gunshots that killed him, Stanton said in opening statements for Richards’ murder trial.
Paramedics found Contreras’ body at a home on the 5800 block of East Carey Avenue after a woman reported hearing moaning coming from the house.
Contreras, 35, was on his
RICHARDS
their life,” and the program offers people a second chance.
“It’s a results-driven program,” he said. “We have so many programs that are trying the right things, but they’re not working.”
Las Vegas resident Charles Williams, 38, has spent the last four years correcting his mistakes.
Williams told the Las Vegas Review-journal following the event that he expected to spend the rest of his
life behind bars. He was locked up at age 14 for first-degree murder. He spent nearly 18 years in and out of jail.
“I used to be involved in gangs, selling drugs,” said Williams, who works in sanitation for Station Casinos. “But I prayed and I had a wakeup call. My life didn’t start pretty, but I made it out. I didn’t want to be a statistic.”
Valerie Murzl, senior vice president of human resources for Station Casinos, said her company has hired at least 20 ex-convicts from the Hope for Prisoners program.
“Everyone we’ve hired has been amazing,” she said.
One of Williams’ mentors is List, a former district attorney and attorney general who sits on Hope for Prisoners’ board.
“Now we see them having families, having jobs, having pride, being alive, giving back to the community and being examples for other inmates, List said.
Contact Ramona Giwargis at rgiwargis@reviewjournal.com or 702380-4538. Follow @Ramonagiwargis on Twitter.