in brief

CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT

Coroner's office IDs worker killed at site

A 20-year-old Las Vegas man killed at a construction site Thursday afternoon after a beam fell on him was identified as Kirk Richardson by the Clark County coroner's office.

County firefighters were called about 2:45 p.m. to the construction site, in the 8500 block of West Sunset Road, near Durango Drive. Witnesses told firefighters that the beam fell on Richardson as a forklift was moving it. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration will handle the investigation.

CORPSE UNEARTHED

Son directs authorities to LV man's body

The body of a Las Vegas man believed to have been buried in the San Bernardino Mountains in California in 1991 was unearthed after authorities said his son told them he had disposed of the corpse there so that he could continue collecting his father's veterans benefits.

The body of James Christian was exhumed Thursday from an unmarked grave in the Twin Peaks area after Mark Lee Christian provided the San Bernardino County coroner's office with directions, county sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said.

"At this point, we are still trying to determine the cause of death and whether or not it is suspicious," she said. "We don't know at this point why Christian chose the Twin Peaks area to bury his father."

Mark Christian, 51, had been collecting about $1,000 a month in benefits since his father died in a Las Vegas motel room 16 years ago, Wiltshire said.

An investigation began after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs got a tip in October that he was fraudulently collecting benefits.

1997 SLAYING

California man held in Southern Nevada

A man sought in an October 1997 slaying in the California city of Santa Clara has been arrested in Southern Nevada, police said.

Isidro Lopez, 28, was sought on a murder warrant issued Friday in Santa Clara County after DNA evidence linked him to the stabbing death of James Amato in Santa Clara, Las Vegas police Sgt. Dave Stansbury said.

Lopez was being held as a fugitive at the Clark County jail without bail pending a Monday appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Police reported that Lopez had dated the woman who discovered Amato's body and that their breakup had not been amicable.

Stansbury said Santa Clara sheriff's investigators met with Lopez after detectives with a Las Vegas-based criminal apprehension team arrested him Thursday near a home he shared with his current girlfriend and their children.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY OUT SICK

Judge orders Spector murder trial to resume

The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial ordered defense attorneys on Friday to be ready for testimony to resume Monday in his Los Angeles courtroom whether or not lead defense lawyer Bruce Cutler comes back from a weeklong sick leave.

"Even if he is not here, unless you can show me he is due to cross-examine a witness or his presence is necessary, we will go forward," said Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler.

The judge, apparently impatient with the uncertainty of Cutler's medical situation, pointed out during a hearing that Spector has many other lawyers who could take over if Cutler is unavailable.

"There is a defense team of at least five attorneys," he said. "We should be able to proceed."

Defense attorney Bradley Brunon said, "We would have to confer with our client."

Fidler said he understood.