Man gets 30 to 75 years for Strip shooting, denies guilt

While he continued to deny his guilt, Robert Jackson, convicted of shooting a woman celebrating her bachelorette party and three other people on the Strip, asked a judge Wednesday for a sentence of two to 7½ years behind bars.

Representing himself in court, Jackson called that “reasonable” punishment. He said that he had changed his life, which was “interrupted by this incident” and that the shooting was “very unfortunate” for the victims.

Instead, District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez ordered the 29-year-old to serve 30 to 75 years in prison.

Prosecutor Danielle Pieper called the shooting a “nightmare for this community” that disrupted “the lifeblood of Las Vegas.”

Prosecutors said Jackson fired five shots on the crowded Strip outside Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in August 2007 in the midst of a battle between rival gangs Young Ballas Squad and Wood. The bullets hit three tourists and a Las Vegas resident. Prosecutors say Jackson was affiliated with high-ranking Squad gang members.

Jackson has denied being in a gang. He said he had worked as a loan processor and owned a home in Summerlin.

“I wasn’t a thug, a gang member, running through the streets, acting a fool,” he said Wednesday. “I’m not a gangster rapper.”

Gonzalez listened to Jackson’s five-minute argument, heard from two of his friends, the prosecutor and Brittany O’Dale, who said she has undergone three surgeries because of complications from the titanium rod placed in her leg after her tibia was shattered by a bullet.

O’Dale said she is still going through physical therapy, paid $8,660 in medical bills out of pocket and suffers from emotional trauma, post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and insomnia.

“These are things that will never end. There’s no end date to any of those things,” O’Dale told the judge and asked for the maximum possible sentence.

Eric Pratt, a friend who was with Jackson on the night of the shooting, has said he saw Markus Burton give a gun to Jackson, who was wearing a green, collared shirt and plaid shorts. Pratt, who had sold the gun to Burton, said he saw Jackson fire into the crowd.

Burton pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit murder.

Video surveillance showed Jackson running away after the shooting and ditching his lime-green polo shirt in a trash can. Police also found the Smith & Wesson handgun in a nearby trash can.

Jackson was sought for four years before being captured in Chicago. His case was featured five times on the “America’s Most Wanted” TV show, and he was named to the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 most-wanted list.

Early last year, prosecutors had offered Jackson a deal to plead guilty to one count of attempted murder and receive a sentence of eight to 20 years in prison.

Jackson fired defense lawyers who tried to persuaded him to take the deal.

In August, a jury convicted him of five counts of attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, four counts of battery with the use of a deadly weapon, and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.