Man, 19, to stand trial in two deaths

A Las Vegas judge on Thursday ruled a 19-year-old must stand trial on two counts of murder in connection with two separate slayings last year.

Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson said that prosecutors had shown enough evidence at a preliminary hearing to send their case against Carl Guilford to District Court for a jury trial.

Guilford is accused of suffocating his 6-year-old cousin and, after his arrest, beating and stabbing to death his cellmate.

An arraignment hearing is set for March 19.

It is unclear whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Guilford, who has competency issues. After the killings, Guilford was sent to the state's mental health facility in Sparks to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. Two months later, state medical experts concluded he is, if he is medicated.

Guilford was arrested May 26 after being accused of suffocating his cousin with a comforter and booked into the Clark County Detention Center.

According to his arrest report, Guilford was trying to quiet the boy so he wouldn't wake the boy's mother at their Desert Inn Road apartment. Guilford told police he heard the devil's voice tell him "well done" as he left the room.

Guilford's mother told investigators her son is bipolar and talked openly with family members about angels and demons and had mentioned "making sacrifices."

Las Vegas police determined through a classification system that Guilford should be segregated from the general population but could be housed with Francesco Sanfilippo, 29, who was facing child pornography and drunken driving charges.

On July 29, a corrections officer found the inmates' cell bloodied during a routine check. Guilford was sitting on the top bunk.

According to a police report detailing Sanfilippo's slaying, Guilford initially told homicide detectives that a fight between the two ensued after Sanfilippo grabbed Guilford's buttocks and said, "I'm going to take that."

Guilford said he didn't remember what happened next, but police said Guilford beat Sanfilippo in the head and stabbed him with a pencil.

The suspect then changed his story "and said that the devil told him that he needed to kill Sanfilippo, or he would make him kill himself."