Jury begins deliberating in trial of two men accused in slaying of 9-year-old girl

By Dave Toplikar

Published Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | 11:31 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | 12:08 p.m.

Prosecutors said it was a cut-and-dried case of Bloods gang members trying to protect their turf from Crips — and a 9-year-old girl getting caught in the crossfire.

Defense attorneys say prosecutors based their case against Kenneth Reid Jr. and Marcus Larry in the 2009 death of Savannah Bullins on innuendo, gossip and trying to create a “distraction” with gang theory.

A Clark County jury that has been sitting through hours of testimony in the three-week trial was sent out shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday to begin deliberating whether Reid and Larry were guilty of slaying the girl on June 12, 2009, at her family’s Las Vegas apartment near Cheyenne Avenue and Interstate 15.

Reid, 23, and Larry, 30, are each charged with murder with use of a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit murder with a deadly weapon in Savannah's Bullins’ death.

Judge James Bixler told attorneys he would check back with jurors around 5 p.m. and if they're not close to reaching a verdict at that time, he would dismiss them for the day and bring them back Thursday to continue.

During closing arguments today, Reid’s attorney, Susan Burke, told the jury that prosecutors did not produce solid evidence against Reid.

“This is nothing more than a trial by innuendo,” Burke told the jury. She said the prosecution based its case on “gossip and half truths in abundance.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said in most gang cases, nobody will talk. But what made this case different was that a 9-year-old girl was killed and those who lived in the neighborhood, which he said was controlled by the 004 Hoodsmen Bloods gang, decided to speak out.

The girl was struck by one of multiple bullets fired into the home. Prosecutors say they were aimed at Willie Bullins, the girl’s father.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Sonia Jimenez told the jury Tuesday afternoon they need to find both of the men guilty. Jimenez said the incident is a “classic” case of members of Bloods gang members, Reid and Larry, trying to get rid of a Crips gang member — Bullins, who was allegedly selling marijuana in their neighborhood.

“They wanted to make sure it was known this was Bloods neighborhood,” Jimenez said. Reid and Larry are alleged members of the 004 Hoodsmen Bloods gang. Bullins has said he is a former member of the Crips gang.

However, Kirk Kennedy, Larry’s lead attorney, told the jury that prosecutors were using gang theory as a “distraction” and that they had produced no evidence that shows Larry was at the scene and participated in the shooting.

Kennedy said the only evidence they had about both Reid and Larry is that Bullins had told officers he remembered them staring at him at the apartment complex. Kennedy said on the night of the shooting, Bullins couldn’t identify either of them as being the man or men he saw shooting at him into his apartment.

Reid and Larry are also been charged with seven counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm into a structure. Each charge carries a gang enhancement that could extend any sentence, if convicted.

Prosecutors have also charged Reid with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to shooting a former rival gang member. He served the minimum four years of a 10-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and to promote, further or assist a gang, according to prison records.

The defendants are each in custody on $720,000 bail.

During a break in Tuesday’s proceedings, Reid’s mother, Roxanne Lewis, said she thought the evidence in the trial was biased toward the prosecution and that the judge wouldn’t allow the defense to present some of its evidence.

Lewis said she thought the evidence presented by the District Attorney’s Office was an attempt to connect her son to the shooting based on hearsay.

Bullins, who sat in the back of the courtroom during Tuesday’s proceedings, said he didn’t know whether prosecutors had convinced the jury.

“I’m not sure how it’s looking,” Bullins said. “I’m hoping for the best.”