Murder charge dropped against 14-year-old girl
A Family Court judge dropped the murder charge Wednesday against a 14-year-old suspected of fatally shooting her best friend in North Las Vegas.
“The fact that these kids have access to firearms and think so little about the dangers associated with them is the fault of everybody in this courtroom because we as a society have created that circumstance,” Judge Amy Mastin said in making her ruling.
The hearing was to decide whether the girl would be transferred to the Clark County Detention Center and appear in North Las Vegas Justice Court for her alleged crimes, but Mastin ruled that she would remain in the juvenile system.
As a general rule, the Las Vegas Review-Journal does not identify juveniles involved in Juvenile Court cases.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Summer Clarke read from the police report during the hearing. More than 50 people, including family of the girl and the boy who was shot, packed the courtroom and the virtual courtroom.
Detectives wrote in the report that 15-year-old Diego Delospalos, along with another boy, walked to the girl’s house on the 700 block of Agate Ridge Drive on March 7. The witness told police that when they got there, the eighth grade girl had a gun, and they passed it around before the girl accidentally shot Delospalos.
He was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound of the head, but North Las Vegas police never publicized the death.
Police wrote in the report that the girl lied multiple times, to her father and to detectives, claiming that Delospalos shot himself, she wasn’t in the room, and she didn’t know the other boy who was at the house. Detectives found a cartridge casing under her mattress and more than 50 photos and videos on her phone showing the girl holding a gun.
“Someone crying immediately after they shot and killed someone does not mean it’s evidence of an accident,” Clarke said. “The fact that they are friends does not mean it’s an accident.”
The girl’s defense attorney, Ryan Helmick, said the girl admitted she was the shooter after she was questioned by the police, but Helmick said it was an accidental shooting.
“Almost every person that I’ve ever dealt with in regard to being interviewed by the police typically lies in the beginning and then after further questioning they talk more,” Helmick said.
Mastin said she did not believe the girl committed a murder because the legal definition requires proof of “malice aforethought,” which means the intention to kill or harm.
Prosecutors can refile charges, and the girl is still being detained while facing a misdemeanor charge of being a minor in possession of a firearm.
“Since I have this forum I will make it known that I think the fact that ‘minor in possession of a firearm’ is a misdemeanor under Nevada law is a tragedy waiting to happen,” Mastin said. “Those should be felonies. Minors shouldn’t have firearms. Parents who allow minors to have firearms should be charged.”
June will mark the 10-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Brooklynn Mohler, a 13-year-old who was eating ice cream after school at her best friend’s house when that friend accidentally shot her. The shooter’s father left a loaded Glock in the kitchen, but no charges were filed against the gun owner or the shooter.
Brooklynn’s mother, Darchel Mohler, became a gun safety activist and helped get a law passed that made improper gun storage a gross misdemeanor.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
