Man guilty in teen’s 2006 slaying

Friends and family on either side of the courtroom locked hands Friday evening as the clerk raised the verdict form.

They all had waited 18 months for this moment. Now they would find out whether a jury believed that Donald Schuster shot and killed 16-year-old JonMichael Ginoulias in self-defense.

The jury did not.

Schuster was found guilty of second-degree murder in the January 2006 slaying during a brawl outside Schuster's northwest Las Vegas home. He also was found guilty of battery with a deadly weapon for shooting Nicholas Errichetto.

The jury acquitted Schuster, 30, on two counts of attempted murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Schuster and the gallery maintained calm as the verdicts were read. The only visible emotion came later as Laura Ginoulias talked about the verdict and the death of her son.

"He can go to jail for 20 years or more and he'll never have what I have right now, living without my son. Twenty years. It's not fair," she said, bursting into tears.

Schuster faces 10 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 6.

The shooting started after Schuster and his brother got into a fight with a group of teenagers at the house next door on Windycliff Court, near Charleston and Rampart boulevards. Tension had been growing between the two households over late-night parties at the house where then-17-year-old Bradley Franklin lived.

On the morning of Jan. 22, 2006, Schuster and brother Mark Strycharz discovered someone had punctured a tire on the car of Strycharz's girlfriend. Strycharz had called police the night before to break up a party next door.

When Franklin, Errichetto, then 17, and JonMichael Ginoulias pulled up after getting smoothies, the two groups started arguing and trading punches. The fight edged toward the front door of Schuster's house.

Strycharz, then 22, fought with the teens and fell through a backyard gate. Meanwhile, Schuster went inside to retrieve his 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun.

He emerged from his front door, which faces the gate, and started shooting, authorities said. He shot JonMichael Ginoulias in the back of a shoulder. The teen stumbled to the front yard, collapsed on the grass and died.

He shot Errichetto in the leg. Schuster was charged with firing a shot at Franklin, but the jury did not convict him on that charge.

Schuster's lawyer, Michael Cristalli, argued that Schuster fired his gun to protect himself and his brother.

Laura Ginoulias said her son and his friends were peaceful teens. "They're not fighters," she said. "They're goofy. They're fun-loving."

District Judge Donald Mosley allowed Schuster to remain free on house arrest until sentencing. Schuster and his lawyers left the courthouse without speaking to the media.