Tuesday, April 24, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.
A Las Vegas teen who killed his father last year was expected to accept a deal this morning that would send him to prison for four to 15 years.
Conan Pope, 16, was to turn himself over to authorities during an 11 a.m. hearing so he could begin serving his prison sentence immediately.
Pope was to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the Jan. 6, 2000, shooting of his father Frank Pope, 62.
"I love my dad," Conan Pope told "NewsONE at 9," Las Vegas ONE's newscast, this morning just before his court appearance. "He was my best friend. What I did was very, very wrong."
The teenager had been scheduled to go to trial on an open murder charge and could have faced a 40-year to life sentence if convicted.
Pope's attorney, Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld, said that despite a compelling defense, the teen didn't want to risk a possible life sentence.
He also wanted to spare his sister, Desiree, and himself from taking the stand, Wildeveld said.
"He recognizes that he did wrong, and going to prison is a part of a process," Wildeveld said. "It's a way of forgiving himself for what he did."
The deal came after weeks of negotiations. Prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to prove first-degree murder, while Wildeveld maintained Pope acted justifiably after years of abuse.
According to court testimony and police reports, Frank Pope came home from work to find his children asleep in the living room and the sink filled with dirty dishes.
The teenagers told police their father became enraged. They gave different accounts of what happened next. Desiree said her father swept the dishes to the floor and pieces of shattered glass struck her brother's bare feet. Conan maintains that his father threw some of the dishes at them.
When the teens tried to clean up the mess, Frank Pope sent them to their rooms.
Within a minute, Desiree said she heard her brother cocking his .357 caliber rifle, yell "You're going to die!" and fire two shots.
Desiree also told police her brother said "There, you're dead (expletive)."
However, Conan told police and friends that he shot his father when his father began walking toward Desiree's room holding a broom in a menacing manner.
Following his arrest, Wildeveld discovered Frank Pope had a violent past including the murder of an infant child for which he spent four years in prison.
Conan Pope also told horrific stories about life in the Pope household -- stories his sister, to whom he hasn't spoken in months, vehemently denies.
During her brother's preliminary hearing, she said her father did not like to physically discipline his children, because he had been abused as a child. She said she didn't feel threatened on the night of her father's death, because he usually calmed down after calling friends.
Her father had been trying to get a handle on his temper, she said. He had attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and placed signs around the house reminding him to keep his temper under control.
"(Conan) didn't have to take my life away from me," Desiree said. "I lived for my dad. I did everything for him."
In court documents referring to the father's violent past, Wildeveld refers to Frank Pope as a "terrifying psychopath" who used drugs in front of his children and had a gambling problem.
Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said the fact that Frank Pope was a "bad guy" was a strong factor in the negotiations.
"However, there's a lot of people (who) have rough childhoods, and that isn't enough to allow somebody to take the law and, in this case, the life of another person, into (his) own hands," Bell said. "So this is one of those cases where there's some right on both sides and some middle ground that has to be reached if there's going to be any justice done."
Bell said the plea agreement gives Pope the chance to get out of prison early enough to be a productive member of society, should he choose to.
When he gets out, he wants to become a nurse practitioner. He said he wants to help people the rest of his life, not hurt them.
Hopefully, Bell said, the boy will get into the prison system's youthful offender program and get the help he needs. If not, the parole system will be waiting for him on the other end of prison, he said.
NewsONE Producer Dana Gentry
contributed to this report.
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