Defense wants new judge in North Las Vegas teen killing

Defense lawyers for a teenager accused of fatally shooting his 16-year-old girlfriend want the judge thrown off the case.

Casey Olaf Sandoval, 17, was indicted last week on one count of murder with a deadly weapon after a medical examiner determined that a .22-caliber handgun was pressed up against the back of Arely Azrate-Lujan's head when she was shot Oct. 15 inside a North Las Vegas home. Sandoval has been charged as an adult.

Defense attorney Kristina Wildeveld has asked for District Judge Douglas Smith to be removed from the case, citing previous conflicts and "an objective appearance of bias or prejudice."

The judge "has called me overzealous, overly passionate and informed me that he has gone to the chief judge to request to have me added to a list of attorneys who cannot appear before him," Wildeveld wrote in court papers filed Monday.

Chief District Judge David Barker is scheduled to review Wildeveld's motion early next month.

Sandoval appeared before Smith on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. Wildeveld, who was not present for the hearing, said she did not want Smith to take Sandoval's initial plea, but the judge went forward with the hearing.

"I talked to the chief judge about it," Smith told Caitlyn McAmis, an attorney from Wildeveld's office. "He told me to proceed until that decision was made."

Sandoval, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, told police two different stories about what happened, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo. When police first arrived at the home at 3302 Bridge House St., Sandoval said he had left the bedroom, heard a noise and returned to find his girlfriend on the floor, bleeding.

After officers pressed Sandoval further, his account changed.

He told police he found the gun, started playing with it and asked Azrate-Lujan to leave the room after he noticed a live round in the chamber. When she bent over to pick up her cellphone, about 4 feet away, the gun discharged, and she fell to the ground, he said.

Initially, the Clark County coroner's office did not make a ruling on the manner of death. But a medical examiner told a Clark County grand jury that soot from the gunshot was found inside the girl's skull, meaning the weapon was "indisputably pressed directly against the back right of the victim's head and discharged," said DiGiacomo, who called the killing an "execution."

Sandoval said there was no argument. His mother and sister, who were in the house at the time, told police they heard no gunshot before Sandoval yelled out, "It's an accident, it's an accident," according to the prosecutor.

Azrate-Lujan lived in the home with Sandoval and his family. She was rushed to University Medical Center, where doctors discovered the gunshot wound and a bullet lodged in her left temple. She later died.

Wildeveld has rejected the prosecutor's allegation that the killing was an execution. In a statement last week, she said she had presented prosecutors with evidence that the shooting was accidental.

Sandoval is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.