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Stories here are reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Wife tortures child to make him testify against his father in Fallon
Las Vegas woman gets life in 1996 slaying of ex-boyfriend
Native American male counselor encounters abusive woman
Actor Christian Slater's wife, Ryan Haddon, charged with battery
Las Vegas woman charged with murder of her husband
Fight over boyfriend sends one woman to hospital, other to jail in Reno
Elko woman bound over on gun charges after trying to shoot estranged husband
Woman had plan to kill ex-husband, a Henderson police officer
Trial to open in Las Vegas for woman accused of drowning quadriplegic ex-husband in bathtub
In a macabre twist on domestic and child abuse, two men from Fallon, Nevada, were released in July, 1998, from life sentences handed down in 1990 when one of the men's son, then age 9, claimed that his father and his father's co-worker sexually assaulted him up to 50 times in a single night. The boy, now 17, came forward and told a judge that his mother had locked him up and starved him until he testified against his father and the other man.
© 1998 by Caren Benjamin, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Saturday, December 19, 1998 — For the murder of bookmaker Bruce Weinstein, his former girlfriend was sentenced Friday to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
District Judge John McGroarty also tacked on at least another 12 years to Amy DeChant's punishment for robbing Weinstein after shooting him.
Robert Jones, the man who helped Ms. DeChant hide the crime, was sentenced to at least two years in prison. Jones has already served 14 months of that time.
Amy DeChant, 50, met Weinstein, 46, in October 1995. He disappeared July 5, 1996, and his decomposed body was found in the desert about two months later.
Ms. DeChant skipped town, was found by police with a wad of cash in the fall of 1996, and returned to Las Vegas. At that point she was only a suspect. As police built the circumstantial case against her she again fled. She was found in January 1998 in a Florida nudist colony and returned to Nevada to face the murder charge filed in her absence.
At the nearly three-week trial, witnesses testified that she told a number of lies when Weinstein disappeared and hinted to friends before the murder that she wanted him — but not his money — out of her life. Weinstein was known to deal in cash and to keep substantial amounts of it around the house, according to testimony at the October trial. Police found no money in his home after he disappeared.
Ms. DeChant's story was that Weinstein was killed by mobsters angry at him for some aspect of his bookmaking and gambling business. She tried to hide what happened when he was slain because the mobsters threatened her life, DeChant's attorney, Dan Albregts, told jurors.
Robert Jones was also charged with murder. He was an employee of Ms. DeChant's carpet cleaning business. Prosecutors claimed he supplied the gun then helped hide the evidence by cleaning up bloody carpets and disposing of the body. The jury convicted him of accessory to murder after the fact.
At the sentencing Jones asked the judge for leniency, saying he had a number of job offers and only wanted to be free and help support his family.
His attorney, Deputy Special Public Defender Lee McMahon, also asked the judge to impose probation, noting the jury essentially convicted him of cleaning the carpet. With Jones' family sobbing in the audience, McGroarty refused her request and instead imposed the maximum possible sentence.
Weinstein's mother, Sylvia White, did not push for a specific sentence. Instead she asked the judge to give her and the others in her family "peace of mind." Weinstein left behind two sisters, a brother and a young daughter in a close-knit family whose members spoke to each other nearly every day, she told the judge.
"There are family gatherings and there is a chair that is always vacant," White said.
Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger reminded McGroarty that the state could have sought a death sentence against Ms. DeChant but chose not to. A sentence of life with the possibility of parole would send the wrong message to anyone looking at the case in the future, including appellate courts and the Pardons Board, he said.
Weinstein's murder "wasn't a result of passion. It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment situation. This was a murder based on greed. This was a woman who loved the dollar," Roger told the court.
Amy DeChant said nothing at the sentencing on the advice of her attorney, who earlier this week asked that the verdict be thrown out and has promised to appeal.
Albregts pointed out that even a sentence of life with the possibility of parole would make Ms. DeChant eligible for release when she is 90.
Published with permission of the author
This situation started in Wisconsin in 2001, continued in Oregon and I finally left her in Nevada (2002). After reviewing other stories on your web site I thought that you had interviewed my former girlfriend.
She is an expert at manipulation and even went so far as to tell me that she sometimes needed to be "put in her place" during the early development of our relationship. This was perplexing to me since whenever I said that I did not appreciate how she was treating me, she cried, "You are too controlling." Before I get too far ahead I need to discuss the formation of that relationship.
When we met she was so thrilled because I practiced my traditional ceremonies, played guitar in a band, and spoke my native language. And best of all, as she told me, I was raising my two children. She convinced me that I was a very worthwhile man. All of the attributes she bestowed upon me were later turned against me in jealous rage.
As our relationship developed we decided to move out west where I was offered a promising career with a pleasing salary. Upon arrival I learned that the agency had changed their minds about hiring for that position. I immediately applied at another agency and was nearly hired on the spot.
My partner became extremely jealous and insecure. I was accused of flirting, of being naive about not knowing when a woman was "coming on to me," and I would be subjected to a series of questions after I spoke with anyone either on the phone or otherwise. As a consequence I limited my contact with anyone but her, even my own children. As a result my son went to live with his mother in California and my daughter moved out on her own.
Eventually she criticized my love of music, my cultural practices and especially the one who taught me these ways and my language. The worst was her admission that she was jealous of me and my ability to secure a decent paying job almost anywhere in the USA. I received other job offers which I turned down to avoid her rage. I even went so far as to change how I dressed (which she also approved of at the outset of our relationship).
She decided to leave me one day and return to home. I did not object and she became offended because I didn't beg her to stay or anything else. She went to a shelter for abused women and gave them a story about how "I" kicked her out! This information got back to my employer. She later bragged about how the shelter was helping her out so much financially. They financed her trip back home, made her car payment, and paid her car insurance.
After about a week at her home she decided that she wanted to come back to where we were living together. I sent her some money to finance her return trip. If I recall correctly she stated something to the effect that she "arranged it so that I could never go back home." I later learned that she told a number of key people that I was beating her up while we were together out west.
Abstracted from report by Steve Gorman
November 12, 2003, Las Vegas (Reuters) — Actor Christian Slater reportedly received 20 stitches to the back of his head after his wife allegedly hurled a drinking glass at him during an argument in their Las Vegas hotel room, but the film star declined to press charges, police say.
Slater's wife, Ryan Haddon, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery after Monday's incident at the Hard Rock Hotel, according to Carla Alston, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Alston said that with Slater declining to press charges, it would be up to prosecutors to decide whether to pursue a case against Ms. Haddon.
Ms. Haddon, who left the scene immediately after the altercation, returned to the hotel after her husband went to the hospital. Ryan Haddon was then taken into custody, booked at the Clark County Detention Centre and later released, Alston said.
Slater, 34, initially told police that his wife threw the glass at him during an argument but "changed his story and said it was an accident" when he realized she would end up in jail, police spokeswoman Alston told Reuters.
Sources familiar with the incident said the account Slater gave to authorities was that the glass accidentally "slipped" out of his wife's hand when she went to throw water in his face while the two were joking around.
Police spokeswoman Alston said such an explanation defied credibility given that the glass struck Slater on the back of the head behind his left ear, opening a gash so big that it took 20 stitches to close it. He was discharged from the hospital after being treated, she said.
A spokeswoman for Slater later said the actor received only nine stitches.
March 16, 2004, Las Vegas (AP) — A Las Vegas woman has been charged with an open count of murder in the stabbing death of her husband.
State police say 31-year-old Abra Duran was arrested Sunday.
Lieutenant Jimmy Glascock says officers found the body of 40-year-old Richard Duran when they responded to a disturbance call at the couple's home earlier Sunday.
© 2004 Reno Gazette-Journal
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Sunday, April 11, 2004 — A fight over a man sent one woman to a hospital and the other to jail, police said.
Reno police officers about 6:30 PM were sent the emergency room of Washoe Medical Center on a report that a woman was stabbed in the hand.
Reno police said 19-year-old Erica Mantz of Sparks went to Nikole Smothers' Reno home about 3 PM Wednesday. The two had been involved in a dispute over a man both had dated, police said.
As the women fought, Smothers, 19, grabbed a large kitchen knife and slashed Mantz's hand, police said. Mantz needed about 10 stitches for the wound.
Smothers was found and booked into Washoe County Jail on suspicion of battery with a deadly weapon and an unrelated misdemeanor warrant and held in lieu of $3,335 bail.
Abstracted from The Elko Daily
March 5, 2004 —Kimberly Ann Hyde, 43, is accused of trying to shoot her estranged husband. On March 29 th she was bound over to Elko District Court by acting Justice of the Peace Patricia L. Calton on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, burglary, and coercion with the use of a deadly weapon.
Charges of violation of a temporary restraining order, battery, and two counts of disturbing the peace were dismissed without prejudice [emphasis added].
The victim, Dan Hyde, told deputies he was awakened the night of March 5 by someone beating on his window. The window started to open, so he got up and saw his estranged wife, Kimberly Hyde, standing outside.
Once Kimberly Hyde was in the house she wouldn't leave and threatened to kill Dan Hyde, with a Beretta 9mm, according to a sheriff's deputy's report.
Kimberly Hyde forced Dan Hyde into the living room and threatened to shoot him and any deputies who arrived, according to the report.
Dan Hyde ran into the bathroom and called the sheriff's office. He told deputies he heard the gun cocking twice outside of the bathroom door.
Kimberly Hyde tried to fire the gun into the door but the safety was on and she ejected the bullets out of the gun and put a fresh bullet in, not realizing why the gun didn't fire, according to a sheriff's deputy's report.
Dan Hyde said he was able to get away from her and grab the gun when she attempted to take a drink of whisky as deputies arrived.
The deputies then found Kimberly Hyde hiding in the bathroom.
© 2004 by Glenn Puit, Review-Journal
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Newly released grand jury transcripts portray a woman accused of plotting to kill her ex-husband as obsessed with carrying out the plan.
Florela McCorkle was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month on charges she planned to kill her ex-husband, Henderson police Sgt. Robert McCorkle. Transcripts of grand jury testimony were released this week.
Las Vegas police investigator Mark Walton told the grand jury he posed as a hit man and met with Florela McCorkle, 38, to discuss the plot.
"She brought out a thick envelope of all the things that she had on him, to include his police identification, his photo identification badge, she had written down his address, vehicle registration information, his girlfriend's pertinent information," Walton said of his first meeting with Florela McCorkle.
Another witness who testified before the grand jury, Brenda Lawrance, said Florela McCorkle asked her to investigate her husband. Lawrance, a former private investigator, said Florela McCorkle once faxed her Robert McCorkle's personal information, and she even mentioned having her husband scouted so his daily routines could be pinpointed.
"She stated she didn't have the money... to hire a private investigator, and she took it into her own hands," Lawrance said. "She was doing her own investigation and she was getting his pattern down and his girlfriend's, and she mentioned his partner, whoever that was."
Florela McCorkle's defense attorney, Stephen Stein, said only one side of the case has come out so far, and he cautioned the public to keep an open mind about his client.
"No one should jump to a conclusion that someone is guilty of a crime simply because they are charged with a crime," Stein said.
Florela McCorkle was indicted by a grand jury on charges of solicitation to commit murder and attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon.
In transcripts from the grand jury proceedings, Florela McCorkle's boss, Kenneth Farmer, said he was training Florela McCorkle to be a loan officer at a mortgage business on Tenaya Way this year when he noticed she repeatedly talked about her ex-husband.
Farmer said Florela McCorkle told him she wanted her husband killed while he was working as an officer in Henderson so her daughter could benefit from insurance.
"She did want it done while he was on duty so her daughter would be provided for the rest of her life," Farmer said.
Farmer said he tried to dismiss Florela McCorkle's talk as just that — talk. But while talking to his business acquaintance, Lawrance, about Florela McCorkle, he said he gradually started to become concerned.
Farmer then introduced Florela McCorkle to Lawrance and the three had lunch. Lawrance told the grand jury Florela McCorkle talked openly about wanting to have her husband murdered.
"She had stated that she would have her husband killed," Lawrance said.
Lawrance contacted police. Walton then went undercover and called Florela McCorkle. The two met in June at an area restaurant.
"I told her that whoever gave her my number, that they must trust you very well," Walton said.
Gradually, Florela McCorkle warmed up to Walton, and over the course of two meetings, he said she told him she wanted her husband killed. She gave him her husband's personal information, and she said she didn't want the murder to occur anywhere other than her husband's place of work. She would pay him $10,000 for the job, and she provided $1,000 in cash.
"She was very adamant about what she wanted done," Walton said.
"You don't mind if I cut off his head, shoot him or whatever, disfigure him?" Walton said he asked her. "She goes, 'No.' Then she stated, 'I don't care if you shoot him in the eyes, cut off his penis and stick it in his mouth.'"
© 2006 by Emanuella Grinberg, Court TV
August 7, 2006 —A few hours after Gloria Guzman called 911 to report that her quadriplegic ex-husband had drowned in a bathtub, she told police he had accidentally died as a result of her neglect.
But Las Vegas prosecutors claim that an angry and embittered Guzman intentionally drowned Mark Richards over his decision to end their six-year relationship.
Beginning Tuesday, a Las Vegas jury will be charged with deciding which version they believe at Guzman's first-degree murder trial.
The 26-year-old former personal care assistant faces life in prison if convicted of murdering her patient and companion.
Officially, the couple had been divorced for nearly two years on the afternoon of Feb. 26, 2005, when authorities responding to a 911 call found Guzman tending to her ex-husband's lifeless body in an empty bathtub.
A medical examiner later concluded that Richards, 40, had been dead for at least 30 minutes by the time paramedics arrived.
Guzman and Richards, who were 15 years apart in age, met in 1999 at a convalescence hospital in California, where Richards was receiving care stemming from a 1986 car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
After they married and moved to Las Vegas in 1999, Guzman discovered that the state would not pay her to care for her husband. They divorced so that she could receive biweekly checks of $844 for providing 24-hour care for her disabled companion.
But by 2005, the relationship had soured, according to Guzman and relatives of the couple, and Richards decided to leave her and move into an assisted-living home.
In a police statement that lawyers for Guzman attempted to keep out of her trial, she admitted that she was "heart-broken" over the situation, but denied she wanted him dead.
In several police interviews the day of Richards' death, Guzman told detectives that around 9 AM she placed him in the apartment's Roman-style bathtub instead of bathing him in the stand-up shower that he always used—at his request.
She said she wrapped a flotation "noodle" around neck and arms, propped his ankles up with a pillow, and left him in the tub.
For the next three hours, Guzman said she divided her time between Richards and an ill 8-year-old niece who had spent the night at the home. Around 12:30 PM Guzman said she gave Richards one tablet each of his daily medication: Valium, Lortab, and Baclofen.
After Guzman's sister picked up the child around 1 p.m., Guzman said she returned to the bathroom and found Richards floating face-down in the water, the "noodle" unwrapped from around him.
At first, Guzman accepted partial responsibility by conceding that she had "neglected" Richards by leaving him in the tub, according to the police statement. Finally, after prodding from detectives, she admitted that she wanted to "hurt" him and intentionally pulled the noodle out from underneath him.
"He was mean and very demanding," Guzman told detectives. "I was just doing everything for him, you know, and basically he would treat me like crap."
Nonetheless, Guzman maintained, she never meant to kill him, and called 911 in an effort to save his life.
A judge denied a defense motion to suppress the statements based on the premise that she had not been properly informed of her Miranda rights, paving the way for the statements to appear before a jury.
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