District attorney in Reno testifies about death threats

RENO - Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick says he doesn't scare easy. But he started carrying a gun and wore a bulletproof vest after a man threatened to kill him during a six-month "domestic terror" spree.

Gary Craig Rosales was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2007 for the crime spree. He's being retried in Washoe District Court in Reno this week after the Nevada Supreme Court overturned his convictions.

The 49-year-old former security guard had pleaded guilty to stalking Gammick, trying to kill a female janitor, firing gunshots into several occupied homes and creating more than 100 anti-cop graffiti taggings and threats to synagogues.

"It takes a lot to make me afraid," Gammick testified Tuesday. "The graffiti said I was going to die soon or be killed. He said he had my schedule. He was following me, called me at home and there were numerous threats to kill me."

"Why me?" Gammick said he asked the caller. "He said, 'I enjoy baiting you.' I didn't know where he was coming from or what he was after."

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Judge Steven Kosach improperly participated in the 2007 plea negotiations and accepted pleas from Rosales, despite concerns about his mental competency. Judge Patrick Flanagan is presiding over Rosales' trial, expected to last a week.

Gammick testified getting three calls at his office and home in 2004. He said the caller threatened his life, including that he would die following the taping of a television news show.

Gammick said the man called him names, bragged about crimes and claimed he would never be caught. Most of the calls were recorded.

Gammick said he never met Rosales and that he had no dealings with his office.

Authorities said the terror spree began in 1999 and included anti-cop graffiti, escalated to seven shootings into homes and a janitor shot at a Kietzke Lane business.

Some of the graffiti bragged about crimes not reported by news media and noted the tagger was watching police officers. Testimony Tuesday included that handwriting from a hit-and-run accident report Rosales filed in May 2004 with Reno police was linked to the graffiti.

Police said the gun used in the shootings was found in December 2004 at Rosales' apartment in Whittier, Calif., where he was arrested.

Before Rosales pleaded guilty, he had been deemed mentally incompetent to face trial. Later, experts declared he was competent and proceedings could resume. After his arrest, Rosales blamed the crimes on another man police could not find. Rosales is charged with attempted murder, aggravated stalking, seven counts of firing into an occupied dwelling and criminal anarchy.