‘We were so confused’: Trial opens in killing of North Las Vegas girl mistakenly targeted

The death penalty trial of Isaac George, one of five men accused in the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Angelina Erivas, began Monday with emotional testimony from the girl’s parents.

Anabel Sarabia and Alberto Sarabia recounted the night their daughter was killed, describing how their three daughters had been gathered around the dining table, eating leftover pizza and working on a school project, before gunfire shattered their evening.

That night ended with Angelina, their middle child, dying in her father’s arms as he rocked her and prayed over her unconscious body.

Prosecutors told jurors that on November 1, 2018, 43 bullets were fired into the Sarabia family’s North Las Vegas home. While the rest of the family escaped injury, Angelina was struck several times.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Schwartzer said that it was 26-year-old George used a rifle to fire the bullet that went into the girl’s head.

George faces nearly 50 charges, including murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, and discharging a firearm into an occupied structure.

Four more men, Guy Lee Banks III, Jarquan Tiffith, Damion Dill, and Erin Deshawn Lynn Hines, have also been accused of involvement in Angelina’s murder. Authorities have said that the group of men mistakenly targeted the Sarabia’s home, believing that it belonged to members of a rival gang.

Banks was fatally shot after a neighbor fired at the getaway vehicle as they fled the scene; Tiffith was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison; and Dill, who was a minor at the time, was sentenced to 20 to 50 years in prison.

Hines, according to prosecutors, took a negotiation with the state. The Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported that Hines admitted to detectives that he had been behind the wheel of the getaway car. He is expected to testify in the trial later.

“When you hear all the evidence from all the witnesses, it’ll become overwhelmingly clear the person responsible for killing 11-year-old Angelina Erivas is in this room, and that’s Isaac George,” Schwartzer said.

Ozzie Fumo, the attorney representing George, chose not to make an opening statement.

Anabel Sarabia took the stand first. She told jurors that she was sitting at the table with her daughters when she heard a noise that sounded like a light bulb popping.

According to Anabel Sarabia, when Angelina heard the popping — which turned out to be gunshots shattering the windows by the dining table — she put her head in her hands.

“We were so confused,” Anabel Sarabia said. “I tried to grab Angelina, and I could just feel the bullets coming through. She wouldn’t move. She just sat there.”

Alberto Sarabia, who was upstairs in the loft area of the home when the shooting began, unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate the girl.

Former North Las Vegas Police officer Michelle Crandall was one of the first to respond to the scene. The Sarabias wept in the gallery as she testified, describing the condition of Angelina’s body.

“I noticed that she was not breathing,” Crandall said. “Then I saw the wound to her head. There was brain matter.”

Crandall also told jurors that she was tasked with checking on Banks, who had, like Angelina, been transported to University Medical Center with critical injuries after the shootings.

At the hospital, she photographed burn marks on Banks’ hands, which she said were consistent with someone who may have fired a weapon.

“I get to UMC and that is where I was advised that the victim, the girl, did not make it,” Crandall said.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.