Three say they are not guilty
Three men charged with murder in the September slaying of a 23-year-old man following a drug deal pleaded not guilty Wednesday in District Court.
Russell Hultgren, 19, Jorge Jose Perez, 18, and Craig Pollock, 18, each face seven felony counts and one gross misdemeanor, including murder with use of a deadly weapon, armed robbery and burglary.
The three defendants were indicted by a grand jury last week in the shooting death of Andrew Duarte, whose body was discovered Sept. 28 in the desert off east Horizon Ridge Parkway.
They are being held at the Clark County Detention Center, according to jail records. Hultgren's bail was set at $1 million. Perez and Pollock are being held on $940,000 bail.
Henderson police believe Hultgren set up the drug deal with Duarte with the intention of robbing him at gunpoint, and that Perez and Pollock knew of the plan.
According to a police report, Hultgren and his friends on the evening of Sept. 23 drove to a parking lot on College Avenue and Horizon Drive, where Hultgren had arranged to buy 12 Ecstasy pills from Duarte. Hultgren then got out of his car and walked a short distance to a bar parking lot.
Hultgren had been gone a few minutes when Perez and Pollock heard three gunshots, the report stated. Hultgren told his friends he had shot Duarte in self defense.
After his arrest, Hultgren reportedly told investigators that when he was in Duarte's vehicle the man pointed a gun at him. Hultgren said they struggled for the gun and three shots were fired. Duarte stopped moving after the third shot.
It is alleged that the three men dumped Duarte's body in the desert and covered it with rocks, though it was later found with the help of a Las Vegas police helicopter. They then are alleged to have driven Duarte's vehicle to Pahrump, where they set it on fire.
Hultgren told investigators the incident scared him, so he dumped the body and burned the vehicle, the report stated.
A trial was scheduled for July 25 before Judge Elissa Cadish.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.
