Still no verdict in trial for 2 men accused in fatal shooting of 9-year-old girl

By Dave Toplikar

Friday, May 4, 2012 | 3:40 p.m.

A Clark County jury broke for the weekend on Friday and will return Monday to continue going over evidence in the murder trial of two men accused in the 2009 fatal shooting of a 9-year-old girl in North Las Vegas.

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

Savannah was killed June 12, 2009, in a hail of bullets fired at her family’s Las Vegas apartment near Cheyenne Avenue and Interstate 15.

Prosecutors told the jury that Reid and Marcus were the “shot-callers” of a gang that controlled the neighborhood, the 004 Hoodsmen Bloods.

Prosecutors said Reid and Larry were targeting the girl’s father, Willie Bullins, who told police he was a former Crips gang member and had sold marijuana out of his home.

Defense attorneys told the jury that prosecutors have no solid evidence against either of the men. The defense attorneys have said prosecutors are basing their case on innuendo and gossip and trying to create a distraction with their theory that the shooting was motivated by a battle between rival gangs.

The jury, which began deliberating shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, continued to go over the case all day on Thursday.

It reconvened again Friday morning and had still not reached a verdict by late Friday afternoon, according to Mary Ann Price, the court’s public information officer.

Price said the jury members told court officers they would break for the weekend and return at 9 a.m. Monday to continue their deliberations.

Besides the murder charge in connection with the girl’s death, Reid and Larry also have been charged in connection with endangering the lives of Bullins, his wife and five children, who were all in the apartment.

Each of the men have 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 there is a conviction.

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.