Mom weeps at murder trial

As Sherri Love sat through the second day of her murder trial Tuesday, her 69-year-old mother, Marjorie Bull, waited in the hall with a photo album in her lap.

The pictures showed the family in happier times. In one photo, Bull's granddaughter, Arabella Moreno, killed at the age of 7, is caught grinning widely in a close-up.

"Arabella was our little princess," Bull said. "Everyone loved her to pieces."

Authorities accuse Love, 47, of cutting Arabella with a knife at least 20 times and fatally stabbing her on Feb. 3, 2007, at the family's home near Jones Boulevard and Wigwam Avenue.

Authorities say Love also cut her son, Brian Moreno, who was 8 at the time, and tried to kill him before he ran from the house.

Love is on trial, charged with murder and attempted murder, before District Court Judge Stewart Bell.

The jury trial is expected to continue for several days.

Love's public defenders said she is mentally ill.

Deputy Public Defender Edward Kane said Love is bipolar and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Days before the slaying, Kane said, Love checked herself into a local hospital for alcohol treatment. When she did, Kane said hospital staff provided Love with treatment that exacerbated her bipolar condition and contributed to the 2007 attacks.

Seeking treatment turned out to be the worst decision she ever made, Kane said.

But prosecutors said when Las Vegas police officers went to Love's house shortly before the 2007 attack for a domestic disturbance call, she was lucid enough that police didn't take her into custody.

Bull said her daughter has a history of mental illness but was an attentive mother. She said Love, who formerly worked as a cocktail waitress at the Golden Nugget, wasn't physically abusive to Arabella or Brian prior to the attack.

Bull, who now has custody of Love's two minor sons, said she wants her daughter placed in a mental institution.

On Tuesday, Love wept as prosecutor Pam Weckerly described Love's knife attack on the two children to the jury.

Love sought hospital treatment in late January 2007, after she confided to a friend that she was drinking too much and was having a hard time caring for her kids.

When she was released after a few days, family members said Love immediately went to a bar and drank.

She seemed sullen and different after she got out of the hospital, said Michael Corbo, Love's 15-year-old son.

On Feb. 3, 2007, Corbo and Love got into a fight at the house. Las Vegas police responded to a call about 3 p.m. and found Corbo outside.

He told police Love threw a candlestick and hit his back, but officers couldn't find any evidence of the attack.

Police left the house without arresting Love or removing the children.

Las Vegas police officer Jake Grunwald, who was at the house that day, testified Tuesday that police left because Love had legal custody of Brian and Arabella and didn't appear to be a danger to herself or others.

Bull, who formerly worked for the Metropolitan Police Department as a civilian supervisor, believes officers should have intervened. Bull said she is planning to file a lawsuit against the police department.

Love's son Brian testified that after police left, Love attacked him while he was on the top of a bunk bed. He said Love told him the knife wouldn't hurt.

After the attack, Weckerly said, Brian fled to a neighbor's house and told neighbors, "My mom just killed my sister."

Love tried to kill herself immediately after the slaying but was taken to University Medical Center and recovered.

Love woke up shackled to a hospital bed several days after the killing but didn't know she had killed Arabella, Kane said.

Kane said when Love learned about what happened after watching a news report, she said, "How and when can I die?"

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.