Man, 19, sentenced in gang slaying
A 19-year-old man was sentenced to 42 years to life in prison Tuesday for shooting and killing a rival gang member and for hitting a bystander with a stray bullet.
District Judge Valerie Adair sentenced Marcus Campbell to prison after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with gang enhancements for killing Patrick Russum, whom police described as a member of the Wood hybrid gang.
Campbell also was found guilty of attempted murder for shooting and wounding Billy Ray Jones, who was playing basketball nearby at the time of the Jan. 28 shooting.
Campbell, who authorities described as a member of the hybrid gang "Squad Up," has maintained that he is innocent.
Adair said Campbell showed little remorse throughout the trial.
"The most notable thing to me was that you didn't seem to have any sympathy or empathy for what the victim's family was going through," she said. "The only emotion I saw you demonstrate was with respect to ... you feeling bad for your family. It's something I noticed -- that lack of sympathy."
Campbell, dressed in a blue county jail uniform, asked how he could feel bad if he wasn't responsible for the death of Russum.
"I'm in my own situation right now. For me to feel sorry for something I didn't do?" he responded.
Authorities said Campbell fired more than 30 rounds and killed Russum on the 800 block of Hassell Avenue, near Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards.
Russum's mother, Angela Conway, said she hoped Campbell lives the rest of his life behind bars.
"I don't ever want him on the street," she said.
The case was solved by the Las Vegas police's Homicide Task Force, a specialized unit formed in February to investigate unsolved gang-related murders in West Las Vegas, an area roughly defined as being bordered by Carey Avenue on the north, Bonanza Road on the south, Interstate 15 on the east and Rancho Drive on the west.
