Man who claimed victim wasn’t dead in Las Vegas shooting gets life without parole
Jurors ruled Thursday that a man will serve a life-without-parole sentence in prison after they found him guilty of first-degree murder, despite his protests that he saw the man he was accused of killing in a holding cell after the shooting.
Nathan Williams, 50, took the stand at his trial and argued that he also acted in self-defense during the April 5, 2022, shooting that police said caused the death of 46-year-old Bryant Johnson. The shooting occurred in an apartment at 2730 E. Bonanza Road.
Juror Dana Hawkins said it was Williams’ testimony that convinced him of Williams’ guilt.
“We all kind of agreed as a jury that there was a little bit of doubt in some circumstances that would have still been present if he didn’t get up on the stand, and I think he kind of was his own worst enemy in that regard,” Hawkins said.
Williams looked at the jury as a clerk read his sentence but did not show any visible reaction.
Jurors also found him guilty of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary while possessing a firearm.
Williams testified for hours on Tuesday and told jurors he saw Johnson in a holding cell at the Regional Justice Center.
“We were kind of really blown away,” Hawkins said. “We were trying to take notes, and after a while, we just stopped taking notes because the story just got too wacky.”
Hawkins thinks it may have been “a case of mistaken identity.”
Williams also acknowledged shooting Johnson twice but said Johnson was trying to rob and kill him.
Deputy District Attorney James Puccinelli argued that evidence indicated Williams was standing over Johnson’s body when he fired the second shot.
“The defendant in this case brought a gun to a literal fistfight,” the prosecutor told jurors. “The law in the state of Nevada says that’s not self-defense in this circumstance.”
Williams’ actions after the shooting didn’t jibe with the self-defense claim, Hawkins said. He didn’t stay at the scene to explain himself, and he turned his shirt inside out in an apparent attempt to evade detection, the juror said.
Williams also testified during the penalty phase of the trial.
“I’m sorry Bryant Johnson got shot that day, but he did not die,” Williams told the jury Thursday.
He added that something must have happened between the time he saw Johnson and the time he received discovery.
“Those injuries that they represented to you were not caused on the day in question,” he said.
The Clark County coroner’s office ruled that Johnson died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Metropolitan Police Department Detective Justine Gatus testified during the penalty phase that Williams was previously convicted of robbery, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon.
“You heard from his direct testimony the other day that he already convinced the parole board to let him go once,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo told the jury. “And what did he do while still on parole? He committed this murder.”
Puccinelli said after court that Williams had a history of befriending people, then robbing them with deadly weapons.
Records indicated that Williams also was a previous member of the Gangster Disciples street gang in Illinois, Gatus said.
“I’ve done some bad stuff in my life, but I’m not a bad person,” Williams told the jury.
Hawkins said Williams’ criminal history was key as jurors deliberated on what the sentence should be.
“Eventually, we came to the conclusion that ‘hey, this is not somebody we should want back out in our community anymore,’” he said.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.