IN BRIEF
CAUSE OF DEATH UNDETERMINED
One victim found dead in apartment identified
One of two people found dead in an apartment Monday has been identified as 61-year-old John Welton Porter of Las Vegas.
The Clark County coroner's office Wednesday had not determined the manner or cause of Porter's death, which Las Vegas police are treating as a murder-suicide.
The second body, a woman, had not been identified.
The bodies were found at 2 p.m. at the Country Club Shadows apartments, 350 E. Desert Inn Road, near Paradise Road.
Police stopped at the apartment after receiving a call from a man who was concerned because a colleague had missed work for three weeks. Officers looked inside the window and saw a body on the bathroom floor, said Lt. Lew Roberts.
Police were unsure how long the pair had been dead.
VACANT HOUSES
Three blazes under investigation as arson
The North Las Vegas Fire Department is investigating three vacant house fires that officials believe were acts of arson.
All three took place between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning near Carey Avenue and Interstate 15.
The first fire broke out at 2131 North Fifth St. at about 9 p.m. The second was at 505 E. Carey Ave., at about 11:30 p.m. And the third fire was at 2050 North Fifth St. at about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
No other structures caught fire, and none of the 28 firefighters who responded to the three fires were injured.
All three properties are owned by the city of North Las Vegas, and the financial cost of the fires has yet to be determined. The homes were scheduled to be demolished as part of the North Fifth Street improvement project.
Witnesses saw three men fleeing the scene of one of the fires. Anybody with information is encouraged to call the North Las Vegas Fire Department at 235-2768.
ONE KILLED, FIVE WOUNDED
Jewish center shooting case declared mistrial
A mistrial has been declared for the man accused of the 2006 shootings at a Seattle Jewish center that left a woman dead and five others wounded.
Jurors had indicated in questions posed to the judge that they were hopelessly deadlocked over whether Naveed Haq was not guilty by reason of insanity as he claims. The judge declared a mistrial Wednesday on the eighth day of deliberations.
Prosecutors say they will retry Haq on murder and attempted murder charges. Jurors acquitted him of one of the 15 counts against him.
Haq held a girl at gunpoint to force his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on July 28, 2006.
