Las Vegas Criminal Defense Blog

Last week four men, ages twenty-three to thirty, were indicted on charges of the Nevada crime of kidnapping for allegedly taking a seventeen-year old girl from her home in Henderson back on August 31st and holding her for a $100,000 ransom. They also face charges for burglary, extortion and conspiracy. The victim was rescued by SWAT within twenty-four hours of the alleged kidnapping.

Similar to murder, the Nevada crime of kidnapping is divided into two degrees. First degree kidnapping is the more serious kind, and it's when someone willfully takes away a person to hold them for ransom or for the purpose to rape, rob, extort, injure, or kill them. First degree kidnapping also includes taking away a minor. Second degree kidnapping comprises all other modes of taking a person away without legal authority.

Continue reading "Four Indicted for Child Kidnapping in Henderson" »

A fourteen year old girl who ran away from her family in Minnesota earlier this month was recently discovered safe in Las Vegas. She reportedly left home with a thirty-seven year old sex offender. He has a conviction for attacking a woman with a sword, and back in the nineties he was arrested for robbery and kidnapping.

Nevada kidnapping law makes it a criminal offense to deliberately and without legal authority take and move someone. Nevada kidnapping law is divided into two degrees: First is more serious and comprises situations involving ransom, attempted battery, murder, sexual assault, robbery or extortion. A suspect may not be convicted of both kidnapping and robbery if the movement of the victim was incidental to the robbery and didn't increase the risk of harm to the victim.

Common defenses in Nevada kidnapping law include lack of intent, consent, insufficient evidence and lack of asportation. First degree kidnapping is a category A felony carrying up to a life sentence. Meanwhile, second degree kidnapping is a category B felony carrying two to fifteen years in prison as well as a fine.

For more info on this story, go to: http://www.examiner.com/x-49462-Minnesota-Top-News-Examiner~y2010m7d26-Missing-14yearold-found-in-Las-Vegas-convicted-sex-offender-still-atlarge

Last month a twenty-six year old man was arrested for the alleged rape and kidnap of a casino worker in Reno back in 2001 after a DNA test linked him to the crime. Since 2001, he's been convicted of various crimes including DUI, battery and home invasion. He was released on $15,000 bail, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for later this month.

Nevada kidnapping law makes it a crime to willfully take another person and move them against their will. Nevada kidnapping law is divided into first-degree and second-degree, and it's often charged in conjunction with other crimes such as robbery and sexual assault. Common defenses to kidnapping are lack of intent, no asportation, or consent.

The penalties for violating Nevada kidnapping law depend upon the circumstances. For example, the standard sentence for first-degree kidnapping when the victim sustained substantial bodily harm is either life in prison with no parole, life in prison with the possibility of parole, or 40 years with the possibility parole. But when there was no substantial bodily harm, the punishment includes life in prison with the possibility of parole, or fifteen years in prison with the possibility of parole.

For more on this story, go to: http://www.rgj.com/article/20100713/NEWS01/100713022/1321/news

Police in Reno allege that a twenty-one year old man has violated Nevada kidnapping law by abducting a 10-week old infant from a Reno home while the mother was sleeping. He supposedly attempted to drop off the baby at another home a few blocks away. He's currently being held at the Washoe County Jail with charges pending for second degree kidnapping.

Nevada kidnapping law divides the crime into two degrees. First degree is when someone allegedly carries away someone else with intent to hold them for ransom or to commit sexual assault, robbery, or murder. Second degree kidnapping is most other scenarios.

Breaking Nevada kidnapping law in the first degree is a category A felony. If the victim suffers substantial bodily harm, the penalty is forty years to life; otherwise, the sentence is fifteen years to life. Second degree kidnapping is a category B felony, carrying two to fifteen years in prison and maybe a fine of $15,000.

Read more about this story at http://www.lvrj.com/news/man-accused-of-kidnapping-infant-92061234.html.

Last week several suspects broke Nevada kidnapping law by abducting a tourist at gunpoint on the Strip, holding him for more than a day, stealing his money and valuables and beating him. According to Lt. Clint Nichols, the tourist was picked at random near the overpass at Flamingo Road. The suspects remain at large.

NRS 200.310 defines Nevada kidnapping law in the first degree as willfully seizing, confining, inveigling, enticing, decoying, abducting, concealing, or carrying away a person with the intent to hold them either for the purpose of ransom or committing sexual assault, extortion, robbery, battery or murder. Nevada kidnapping law in the second degree occurs when the suspect willfully takes a person with the intent to keep them secretly imprisoned within the state, to convey them out of the state, or to hold them against their will.

Continue reading "Tourist Kidnapped in Las Vegas" »

The Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping case has prompted parole officers in Nevada to search the backyards of the sex offenders under their supervision. In addition, they’re also checking satellite images of their residences on Google Earth. In an effort to crack down on sex crimes in Nevada, Governor Jim Gibbons said he wants to make sure "that our officers are checking things they may have bypassed in the past."

According to a legislative audit released last year, the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation (http://dps.nv.gov/npp/index.shtml) isn’t always meeting their standards: Thirty-one percent of the time, parole officers neglected to meet their twice-monthly requirement to visit sex offenders. And nearly fifty percent of the time, parole officers didn’t take the required DNA samples from the sex offenders. Since, then, however, these problems have reportedly been addressed.

Continue reading "Dugard Case Prompts NV Parole Officers to Check Sex Offenders' Backyards" »

Recently four men have been arrested and booked in Las Vegas for pimping a 15-year-old girl. They face charges of living off the earnings of a prostitute and first-degree kidnapping in Las Vegas, the latter of which may carry a life sentence.

The suspects, who are all under twenty-two years old, are members of or associated with the LA-based gang “Blythe Street.” They’re accused of keeping a 15-year-old girl locked in a room at an Extended Stay Motel and forcing her to have sex with Johns. Allegedly they struck her in the face with a gun when she tried to leave and even played “Russian Roulette” on her with a gun.

Details of the alleged kidnapping in Las Vegas are still unclear, but the girl was apparently locked up for several weeks. The situation wasn’t discovered by authorities until a motel patron, whom one of the suspects tried to solicit the girl to, called the police.

The Nevada Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on August 3rd to determine whether to grant O.J. Simpson’s request for bail release pending his appeal. In 2008, Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping in Las Vegas.

This will be the first time in eight years that the Nevada Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for bail pending appeal. This could be due, in part, to Simpson’s celebrity, but it also suggests that he has potentially meritorious issues.

Simpson attorney Yale Galanter, who also defended him in his assault and kidnapping in Las Vegas case, admits he has a high burden to meet in order to prevail at this hearing, but he’s insistent that Simpson will not be a flight risk: "He's got no place to go, no place to hide. News crews follow him to the restaurant, to the golf course, to school to pick up his kids. He's truly one of the most recognizable people on the planet."