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Saturday, January 26, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

First trial stemming from gang war opens

In the first murder trial arising from a gang war that claimed more than a dozen lives, attorneys used their opening statements Friday to address some of the factors that complicate the search for justice in such killings.

An attorney for Ashley Bennett, charged in the March 3 death of Joseph Williams, told jurors that prosecutors will rely upon witnesses who traded their testimony for leniency in their own criminal cases.

"This is not a case about mistaken identities," attorney Melinda Simpkins said. "This is a case about witnesses and their motivation to lie."

Deputy District Attorney Melisa De La Garza told jurors the case was an extremely difficult one to investigate because of the fear of violence found in the North Las Vegas neighborhood where the shooting occurred.

"People in this neighborhood don't talk to police," De La Garza said. "People in this neighborhood don't cooperate."

Bennett is charged with murder with a deadly weapon in the death of Williams, 26, at the Buena Vista Springs apartment complex, Carey Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard. At least four different firearms were used to shoot Williams 14 times.

Simpkins told jurors that two key witnesses against Bennett have benefited from their decision to testify.

She said witness Anthony "Wacky G" Gantt is a confessed killer who will say Bennett participated in the Williams slaying.

Simpkins said Gantt, 16, has admitted to participating in the killing himself and agreed to testify against Bennett in exchange for a lenient sentence. Simpkins said as a result of his cooperation, Gantt will be eligible for parole in just 10 years versus parole eligibility in 40 years if he did not cooperate.

Simpkins said the second witness, Pamela Neal, had a conspiracy to commit murder charge against her dismissed before her testifying against Bennett at an earlier preliminary hearing.

De La Garza said the testimony of Neal and Gantt will clearly show Bennett was one of a group of men who killed Williams as part of an ongoing gang dispute.

North Las Vegas police have said that 13 people slain in the city last year died during a war between rival gangs over drug-selling turf in the general vicinity of Martin Luther King Boulevard, between Carey Avenue and Lake Mead Boulevard.

Police said a lack of cooperation from neighborhood residents hindered them in solving the homicide cases. Nine of the suspects arrested in connection with some of those slayings were later released from jail, never facing formal charges because of a lack of evidence.

Bennett is the first person charged in any of the slayings to be tried on a murder charge.

According to authorities, Williams -- whose nickname was "Doughboy" -- was a member of the Rolling 60s street gang, which has been involved in an ongoing gang dispute with another gang called the Gerson Park Kingsmen. The dispute is believed to be behind most of the killings.

De La Garza said that on the day of the killing, Bennett and his friends had attended a funeral for an acquaintance killed in a gang shooting when they encountered Williams in the apartment complex.

"Doughboy is someone they affiliate with a group called the Rolling 60s," De La Garza said.

"Someone says, `Lets smoke this dude,' " the prosecutor said.

De La Garza said Neal didn't come forward in the case until her own cousin was killed in a shooting, and she realized what it was like to be the loved one of a victim in an unsolved gang shooting.

"Her cousin had been killed and no one had come forward," De La Garza said.

Simpkins said Neal is not to be believed, and that witnesses will testify Bennett was at a cookout at the time of the killing.