Families bonded in tragedy as jury decides fate of Las Vegas Strip killer

For a long time, Tehran Boldon sat alone in the back of courtrooms, eyeing the man who killed his brother, Michael, and two others.

He drove to an arraignment hearing in California after Ammar Asim Faruq Harris was captured for the 2013 Strip shooting.

He watched as a Las Vegas jury convicted Harris of rape and robbery in an unrelated case that same year.

And as the triple murder death penalty trial began for Harris last month, he met the families of the other victims, Sandra Sutton and Kenneth "Clutch" Cherry Jr., when they joined him at the Regional Justice Center.

This week, those families and friends are scheduled to testify about the lives of three who were killed, and a jury is expected to decide whether 29-year-old Harris should be executed.

The same panel determined quickly last week that Harris was guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, two counts of discharging a firearm into a vehicle, and five counts of discharging a firearm out of a vehicle.

When Boldon first met Sutton's family, there were few words exchanged. "We just kind of hugged each other," he said, "and told each other we were sorry."

They embraced and shared in grief day after day as they lined the back row of courtroom 15A for more than a week of testimony from witnesses.

Sutton's family has declined to speak with reporters.

In the two years since the Strip shooting that killed his cabdriver brother, Tehran Boldon has had difficulty getting out of bed and maintaining his daily routine. The bond he formed at the courthouse helped him endure the trial.

"We made real connections," he said.

At first, he thought that would have been difficult to achieve.

"I didn't really know how to get in touch with them," Boldon said, tears rolling down his face. "And then I was like, even if I get in touch with them, what am I going to say?"

Harris, a black man, murdered a white woman and two black men.

"It's kind of weird for me, being a black man," Boldon said. "When a black man commits a crime, I take it really personal. ... Here I am a black man, and I'm like wow. A black man killed this white woman. My brother as well. They were killed by a thug."

The victims were innocent. Prosecutors said the killings were the result of mistaken identity. Harris, a self-identified pimp, fired five shots in the predawn hours of Feb. 21, 2013, because he felt disrespected as he left a nightclub at Aria. He had scuffled with another man he later mistook as Cherry, chasing him onto the Strip.

After 27-year-old Cherry was shot, he crashed his Maserati into a taxi, causing a fiery explosion that killed Michael Boldon, 62, and his 48-year-old passenger, Sutton. Defense lawyers argued that Harris acted in self-defense.

Cherry's father, Kenny Cherry Sr., has said his son, an aspiring rapper, was wrongly portrayed in the media as a pimp, like Harris.

While the two lived in the same residential complex, they did not know each other, according to the elder Cherry.

"They tried to put our son up as somebody he wasn't," he said. "We lost our son, and it wasn't his fault. My son wasn't involved in all that mess."

Harris lived a life surrounded by violence and prostitution that Cherry and Boldon despise.

"Human trafficking — prostitution — is not a victimless crime," Boldon said. "That man should have been put away a long time before my brother crossed that intersection."

One day soon, Boldon hopes to start a foundation — called Mike the Cabbie — that steers youngsters away from street life.

Before his brother was killed, he hadn't given much consideration to crime among youths, thinking it wouldn't affect his family.

"I would never have been in this situation," he said. "Like everyone else thinks: You get behind the gate, you're safe. No you're not. Because you could be a target, too. Just because you're behind the gate doesn't mean you can't get hit by Ammar Harris or shot by this one, shooting at that fool and hit your cousin, who was just going to work or just having a coffee. It affects everybody. And it just happened to hit me.

"I asked why and why and why," he said. "Maybe this is why."

After Harris is sentenced, the families of his victims will try to move on with their lives, perhaps by creating new memories with each other. Boldon wants to attend high school graduation ceremonies for Sutton's children.

"They're our family now. We are family," he said. "It's going to be a good thing. It's going to allow us to heal and grow."

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