Not guilty plea in shooting

Two men punched Richard Shepherd after making sexual comments directed at his sister outside a Caesars Palace nightclub.

Shepherd, 34, then went to the parking garage to get a gun, according to authorities, and entered the casino firing. Two people were injured, Vance Davis and Markael Ballou.

Shepherd pleaded not guilty Wednesday to multiple counts of attempted murder and other charges relating to the Aug. 4 incident. His attorney hinted that Shepherd will claim he acted in self-defense.

His lawyer, Scott Holper, unsuccessfully argued to lower Shepherd's bail from $250,000 to $25,000, noting his bail was $90,000 before the grand jury indicted him on five of the eight counts he was originally charged with.

"Mr. Shepherd is not a threat to society," he said.

Holper said casino surveillance video shows Davis and Ballou using gang signs earlier in the evening.

They were together with Terrance Aubry and John Martinez, the two men who had made comments about Shepherd's sister and then punched him in the face, twice, Holper said.

And Holper emphasized Davis had a gun, which fell to the floor after Shepherd shot him twice in the arm.

A video of the shooting obtained by the Review-Journal shows a woman authorities have identified as Shepherd's sister begging him not to return to the casino floor and an innocent bystander trapped inside the elevator with them.

As the door opens, a man authorities allege is Shepherd fires several shots into the corridor.

"The sister is pushing buttons trying to get the doors closed to stop the shooting," Prosecutor Victoria Villegas told Hearing Master Kevin Williams on Wednesday.

She said Davis and Ballou did not know, and were not with, Aubry and Martinez that evening.

She said the bail was appropriate, considering Steven Zegrean, who opened fire July 6 in the New-York-New York Casino, wounding four people, received a $1.5 million bail.

In deciding to keep bail at $250,000, Williams told Holper, "Your client decided to re-engage at that particular time and to re-engage with a weapon."

Villegas said there is a current misdemeanor charge of domestic violence pending against Shepherd in Justice Court for beating his girlfriend, Trina Morales-James.

Villegas said after the Caesars shooting, Shepherd ran to the Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino where he waited for Morales-James to pick him up. Villegas said the casino has surveillance video of him beating Morales-James as she called for help.

Casino security officers arrived, and Shepherd fled, Villegas said.

Shepherd later turned himself in to police, she said.

Morales-James did not press charges for the Barbary Coast incident, she said.

A trial was set for Nov. 5 in District Judge Donald Mosley's courtroom.

On Wednesday, Holper told Williams he believed Villegas was withholding discovery on the case.

Villegas said she's given him every piece of evidence and information she's received and tried to get him removed from the case.

Holper, a private attorney, was originally retained by the Shepherd family. When their resources became scarce as they tried to come up with bail, Holper said, he was retained by Judge William Jansen in Justice Court before the case went before the grand jury.

Villegas said the case should have gone first to the public defender's office.

"We're paying him a $100 an hour for being appointed," she said. "Since the time of his (Shepherd's) bail hearing, the county's been paying for his service."

Holper told Williams, who kept him on the case pending Mosley's decision, that the Shepherd family retained him again Wednesday.

Holper and the Shepherd family wouldn't comment after the hearing.