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Thursday, February 15, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal News Wrap
LAS VEGAS Couple accused of abduction arraigned Two parents accused of abducting their own children from county custody formally heard the charges against them Wednesday morning in Las Vegas Justice Court. David Pieri and Sheryl Zohlman each face one felony count of interference with custodial rights. If convicted, they could be sentenced to one to four years of prison, according to Brian Kunzi, the Nevada senior deputy attorney general prosecuting the case. Their preliminary hearing has been scheduled for March 1. Las Vegas police arrested Pieri and Zohlman on Saturday in connection with the Feb. 2 kidnapping of their two children from Child Haven, Clark County's home for abused, neglected and abandoned children. The children, an elementary school-age boy and girl, were taken just after 10 a.m., according to officials at the Department of Family and Youth Services, the county agency that operates the shelter. The children were in court-ordered protective custody because of neglect and had been at Child Haven less than a week, the officials said. The parents had visited their children each day since they had been placed there. It was the first abduction from Child Haven in more than a decade, Family and Youth Services officials said. LAS VEGAS Three 21-year-olds face fraud charges Three people were indicted Wednesday after federal authorities accused them of using stolen credit cards, ATM cards and blank checks to defraud financial institutions out of about $126,000. According to the indictment, the cards and checks were stolen from residential mail boxes in Las Vegas. Ryan Powell Vannah, Stephen Lynn Simister and Kaycee Lynn French, all 21, each face one count of conspiracy. According to the indictment, the defendants conspired from October 1999 through May to commit their crimes. French faces two counts of bank fraud, while Vannah and Simister each face five counts. Vannah and Simister also each face five counts of access device fraud and 10 counts of possession of stolen mail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Stanish said both Vannah and Simister live in Las Vegas, but French's whereabouts are not known. A warrant for French's arrest was issued Wednesday. LAS VEGAS Body of woman found in desert ID'd The body of a woman found in a desert area with her hands tied behind her back has been identified as Gina Marie Holliday, 20, of Henderson. Holliday's body was found Feb. 1 by a man on a dune buggy about 100 yards south of the Sahara Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard intersection. Police said she suffered obvious head trauma.
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