Different accounts of suspect in killing

Authorities have described Kenneth Counts as a gang member who received $6,000 for fatally shooting a former strip club employee.

But in court on Thursday, defense attorney Bret Whipple described his 33-year-old client as a "family man" who was used as a scapegoat by the real killer.

During his opening statement in the capital murder case, Whipple said Counts was spending time with relatives when Timothy Hadland, who had worked as a doorman at the all-nude Palomino Club in North Las Vegas, was slain on the night of May 19, 2005.

"You're going to learn that they were all together when this terrible shooting occurred," the defense lawyer told jurors.

Whipple said the trial will pit the credibility of Counts' family, which will provide his alibi, against the credibility of the "Palomino Club family."

The lawyer said evidence will show that the Palomino Club family, which included employee Deangelo Carroll, caused Hadland's death without help from Counts.

A stay has been issued in Carroll's case, but a trial for two other defendants, Luis Hidalgo III and Anabel Espindola, is scheduled to begin Feb. 11. In December, the Nevada Supreme Court barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Hidalgo and Espindola.

Hidalgo is the son of Luis Hidalgo Jr., the former owner of the Palomino Club. Espindola has been described as the former owner's longtime girlfriend.

According to a Las Vegas police report, Hadland was marked for death after bad-mouthing the Palomino Club and its owner to cabdrivers, costing the business thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

The Palomino Club is the only all-nude club in Clark County that legally can serve alcohol.

Hadland, a 44-year-old father of four, was found dead on an isolated road near Lake Mead. Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said Hadland, who had recently been fired from his job at the Palomino Club, was camping at the lake with his girlfriend and drove to the site after receiving a call from Carroll, who offered to provide him with marijuana.

DiGiacomo said Carroll drove two teenagers to a home on E Street, where they picked up Counts, before driving to the scene of the crime. After Hadland got out of his vehicle, Counts exited the minivan Carroll was driving and shot the victim twice in the head, the prosecutor said.

The four in the minivan then drove to the Palomino Club, where Counts received his $6,000 payment before leaving the business in a cab, DiGiacomo told the jury.

Police later arrested Counts after a two-hour standoff on E Street. Whipple said Counts refused to surrender because he knew authorities had an outstanding warrant for his arrest from California that stemmed from the 1990s, and he did not want to be taken away from his family.

The defense lawyer said Counts and Carroll knew each other and had exchanged marijuana in the past but were not friends. He said Carroll, who initially cooperated with investigators, had a motive to lie.

Whipple said the two other witnesses in the minivan received benefits for their cooperation.

"I'm going to tell you right now, both of them are liars," Whipple told the jury.

One of them, 17-year-old Jayson Taoipu, pleaded guilty in June to voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the case. He named Counts as the shooter.

The other witness, Rontae Zone, has not been charged.

While Zone made some "stupid choices," DiGiacomo said, "he never committed a criminal act."

Hadland's girlfriend, Paijit Karlson, sat outside the courtroom of District Judge Valerie Adair on Thursday as she waited for prosecutors to call her to the witness stand.

The woman, a native of Thailand, said she met Hadland while working as a stripper in Henderson. She said they had lived together for about a year before his death.

She said she waited at the lake all night for her boyfriend to return before learning his fate. On Thursday, she remembered him as an honest man who smiled a lot and liked to sing.

"I just want to move on," Karlson said.

"It's kind of hard."

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0264.