Prosecution rests in Strip shooting trial
Just days after his arrest in the killing of three people on the Las Vegas Strip, Ammar Harris begged friends to hire a "top-dollar" lawyer.
"I need like a $100,000 lawyer or better, homey," Harris said in a recorded phone call Harris made from a Los Angeles jail to his girlfriend, Yenesis Alfonso, and another man identified only as "K." Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday after playing the 15-minute conversation in the death penalty trial. "I need a real f---ing lawyer. I need top-dollar s--t."
Prosecutors have said Harris shot and killed Kenny "Clutch" Cherry Jr. after pulling alongside the victim's Maserati in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 21, 2013
As the bullet plowed through Cherry's heart and lungs, he crashed his car into a taxi, causing a fiery explosion that killed driver Michael Boldon and his passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash. A passenger in Clutch's Maserati suffered a minor gunshot wound and survived.
Harris sped back to his residence at the Meridian, a luxury complex just east of the Strip, and later fled to Los Angeles, where he was arrested about a week later.
The man on the phone call identified as "K" seemed to suggest that Clutch fired shots at Harris. But prosecutors have said there was no weapon found in Clutch's vehicle.
"What do you mean he was shooting at me?" Harris responded. "Are you giving me a story, or are you telling me something that's real? 'Cause I don't remember that."
Harris faces three counts of murder with use of a deadly weapon, 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. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
Defense attorneys Tom Ericsson and Robert Langford plan to call at least a few witnesses Thursday and said they still have not decided whether Harris will take the stand.
Lawyers are expected to present closing arguments Monday.
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
