Suspect accused in fatal Las Vegas shooting says he saw man after alleged killing

Murder suspects often deny committing the crime.

But Nathan Williams is unusual because he claims to have seen the man he is accused of killing in a holding cell after authorities say the fatal shooting occurred.

Police have said Williams killed 46-year-old Bryant Johnson on April 5, 2022, in an apartment at 2730 E. Bonanza Road. His trial is scheduled to start Monday.

Williams, 50, insisted on testifying at a hearing this week against the advice of Michael Sanft, who is Williams’ sixth attorney, by Sanft’s count.

“I saw him with my own eyes and I’ve been asking for that video footage ever since then,” said Williams, who has claimed surveillance footage would back him up.

Evidence preservation

When Deputy District Attorney James Puccinelli showed Williams a photo of the man killed, the defendant agreed it showed Johnson.

“You understand that this photograph was taken at an autopsy?” the prosecutor asked.

“Allegedly,” Williams replied. He went on to assert that the prosecution withheld or “intentionally destroyed” evidence.

Puccinelli denied after court that prosecutors destroyed evidence; they didn’t have access to a lot of the records Williams claims were destroyed, he said, and did not learn Williams wanted the footage until after the retention period.

“All signs show that he was shot and killed on April 5th,” the prosecutor told the judge. “I don’t think there’s any disputing that.”

Sanft had argued in a motion to dismiss that District Judge Carli Kierny should throw out the case because authorities failed to preserve evidence that would help his client’s case. Alternatively, he asked Kierny to order a jury instruction.

The judge denied the motion. “That information was not preserved in a purely administrative fashion,” she said.

Thomas Newsome, chief marshal for the Clark County District Court, testified inmates are usually transported from the jail to the Regional Justice Center through an underground tunnel between the two buildings. There’s a surveillance system and footage is stored for about 30 days until it’s recorded over, he said.

Metropolitan Police Department records custodian Angela Taylor testified Johnson was most recently incarcerated at the Clark County Detention Center in 2021.

Competency evaluations

Doctors have evaluated Williams for competency.

He was found competent in May 2023. Later that year, doctors said he was incompetent and a judge ordered him to undergo treatment. He was again found competent in May 2024 after returning from a state hospital.

But by Aug. 2024, Williams’ competency was in question again. Two doctors said he was competent and one found he was incompetent. A judge ruled him to be competent.

A client is supposed to decide the objectives — like a not guilty verdict — and an attorney figures out the strategy, but cannot concede to any charge without the client’s approval, said Scott Coffee, a former public defender who has represented high-profile defendants with competency issues.

The defense lawyer could argue that they’re not conceding the victim is dead, but also that the defendant acted in self defense, Coffee said. “If you do it right, you can maintain your credibility while letting the client tell his story, but it’s a very difficult path to walk.”

Tough client

Williams’ belief he saw Johnson alive has made it difficult to be his attorney, according to filings.

Early on, he was represented by Tony Abbatangelo, who asked to withdraw from the case after Williams “informed Counsel that the decedent was alive” and threatened to sue the attorney, court records indicate.

Kenneth Frizzell replaced Abbatangelo as Williams’ lawyer, but he, too, left the case after his relationship with Williams soured.

Frizzell said he tried to obtain the video from cameras that Williams said would show the victim walking around.

But he learned the footage didn’t exist, he said. “It’s a dead end.”

He added: “When I couldn’t produce that (footage), he was done with me.”

That’s been a theme, said Kierny in a May filing.

“Mr. Williams’s predominant issue with all of his attorneys centers around Mr. Williams’s belief that he saw Mr. Johnson alive in Lower Level Arraignment, weeks after Mr. Williams is alleged to have killed Mr. Johnson,” the judge wrote. “None of his appointed attorneys were able to obtain proof of this, leading to Mr. Williams seeking to have them removed.”

Sanft began representing Williams this February.

Frizzell thinks Williams truly believes he saw Johnson.

“It could have been a hallucination,” he said. “It could have been somebody that looked close. I believe we all kind of have doppelgangers.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.