IN BRIEF

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Death penalty to be sought against four defendants

Clark County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against four defendants accused of murder in separate cases.

The district attorney's death penalty committee this week decided to seek capital punishment against Richard Freeman, Gregory Hover, Harold Montague and Will Sitton.

Hover, 38, and Freeman, 18, face multiple felony charges, including murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery and burglary in the slaying of Prisma Ivette Contreras.

Authorities allege Hover and Freeman kidnapped Contreras as she left her job at the Hooters Hotel, took her to Boulder City where they raped her, strangled her and cut her throat.

Hover and Freeman also are charged in the shooting death of Julio Romero, 64, in his home Jan. 25 and with wounding his wife.

Montague, 34, is accused of using a battle ax to kill 4-month-old Damian Avila Castro, and critically injuring his mother, Sandra Castro, in February. He also is accused of earlier stabbing 20 times his mentally and physically disabled sister-in-law, Monica O'Dazier. Before he was taken into custody, Montague attacked a police officer, authorities allege.

Montague's defense attorney's said he will plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Sitton, 47, along with co-defendant Jacquie Schafer, 46, are charged with multiple felonies including murder, robbery and burglary in the beating death of Brian Haskell.

Haskell was found dead in November in his condominium near Rainbow and Oakey boulevards, but authorities believe his death might have occurred in October.

FAMILY PROMISE

'Cardboard city' event to draw attention to homelessness

Family Promise, a nonprofit that helps homeless families, plans an overnight "cardboard city" on Saturday to draw attention to homelessness in the valley and to raise money for the charity.

Participants should bring their own cardboard boxes and sleeping bags to the Boys & Girls Club of Las Vegas at 2850 S. Lindell Road, near Edna Avenue.

The event begins at 6 p.m. Saturday and goes until 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Participants sleep outside in their boxes and dine from a soup-line to connect with the struggle of the homeless, organizers said. Volunteers will serve as security staff at the event.

For more information, call 638-8806.

NEVADA INMATES

High court rejects appeals in two death penalty cases

The Nevada Supreme Court has denied two death penalty appeals from inmates who argued, among other things, that their lawyers were ineffective.

Justices on Wednesday rejected appeals by Patrick McKenna and Siaosi Vanisi.

McKenna has been on death row since 1979, when he was convicted of killing his cell mate while in the Clark County Jail. He has had three separate penalty hearings and was sentenced to death by lethal injection each time.

Vanisi was convicted of the 1998 hatchet murder of George Sullivan, a University of Nevada, Reno campus police sergeant who was attacked while in his patrol car.

In his latest appeal, Vanisi's lawyers raised numerous challenges to his death sentence, including that a judge erred by determining he was mentally competent to assist in post-conviction appeals.

WEEKEND EVENT

Thousands of people expected at Laughlin motorcycle rally

Several thousand bikers and motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to arrive in the Colorado River resort town of Laughlin over the next few days for a weekend rally marred by a fatal biker gang shootout in 2002.

Authorities in Arizona and Nevada were bracing for the 28th annual Laughlin River Run, billed as the largest ride-in motorcycle rally in the West.

Crowds in past years have topped 60,000. Attendance dropped to about 40,000 people in 2008 and 33,600 last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Three people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in the 2002 brawl and shootout between Hells Angels and rival Mongols at Harrah's Laughlin.

PROVING CITIZENSHIP

Arizona bill targets Obama in future presidential bid

Arizona lawmakers expressing doubt over whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States are pushing a bill through the Legislature that would require the president to show his birth certificate to get on the state's 2012 ballot.

The House passed the measure Wednesday on a 31-29 vote, ignoring protests from opponents .

The measure's sponsor, Republican Rep. Judy Burges of Skull Valley, said she isn't sure Obama could prove his eligibility for the ballot in Arizona and wants to erase all doubts.

So-called "birthers" have contended since the 2008 presidential campaign that Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was born in Kenya, his father's homeland. The Constitution says that a person must be a "natural-born citizen" to be eligible for the presidency.

Hawaii officials repeatedly have confirmed Obama's citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificate has been made public .