Police: Serial killer suspect to face another murder charge
Clark County prosecutors are expected to add a third murder charge against serial killer suspect Nathan Burkett this week.
Las Vegas police homicide detectives think they have connected Burkett to the strangulation of a Los Angeles woman, Althea Williams, in 1994. It is unclear how they linked him to the slaying.
A source familiar with the case said, "It does not appear the case was made through DNA, but through other investigative means."
It would be the fifth time Burkett has been connected to a woman's death in two states. Four of them were strangled.
Special Public Defender David Schieck, who is representing Burkett in the murder case, couldn't comment because he hadn't seen any new charges as of Wednesday.
Prosecutors would not comment on the case.
Burkett, 62, described by former neighbors as having an iron-tight grip, already faces two counts of murder and two counts of sexual assault in the strangulations of two women in Las Vegas.
Burkett was extradited from Mississippi in August and charged in two Las Vegas cold-case killings: the death of 22-year-old Barbara Ann Cox on April 22, 1978, and the death of 27-year-old Tina Gayle Mitchell on Feb. 20, 1994.
Police said DNA found at the scenes linked him to both of those killings.
Burkett has been convicted of killing at least two other people. Records show he served time in prison for manslaughter in Mississippi in the 1980s after his mother was found burned to death.
He also was arrested by Las Vegas police on a murder charge in October 2003 in connection with the death of Valetter Jean Bousley, 41, whose body had been found a year earlier. Burkett was convicted of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter in Bousley's death and served six years in prison.
Burkett is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.
Court records show that Burkett, who needs a wheelchair to get around, is set to appear before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman on Friday.
Review-Journal writer Mike Blasky contributed to this report. Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.
