North Las Vegas man balks at plea in kidnap-child sex case

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 | 1:06 p.m.

A Nevada man balked at his agreed-upon plea deal Wednesday, deciding instead to face trial on charges that he abducted and raped teenage girls, including some he kept as sex slaves.

Jimmy Carter Kim, 27, greeted a Clark County District Court judge with a cheerful, "How are you today, your honor?" before rejecting an agreement that had called for him to plead guilty to one sex assault charge and three counts of sexual assault of a minor in return for a possible sentence of 35 years to life in prison.

Prosecutor Dena Rinetti asked for time for the state to revise charging documents, and the judge set Kim's next court date for Monday. No plea was entered.

Defense attorney Jeff Maningo said outside court that Kim changed his mind since telling a North Las Vegas judge on March 1 that he would plead guilty to four charges and have 79 other counts dismissed, including kidnapping, lewdness, attempted sex assault and using a minor in producing pornography.

Convictions on the most serious charges of kidnapping and sex assault of a minor could get Kim life in prison.

His agreement to plead guilty had come minutes before a preliminary hearing involving public testimony by some of Kim's accusers, their family members and police from Reno and North Las Vegas. A judge had declined a prosecutor's request to close the courtroom to spectators and the media during victim testimony.

The case came to light in December, after a 14-year-old Arizona girl appeared at a Las Vegas-area convenience store and said Kim abducted her and kept her captive as his sex slave for a month.

The girl told police she was threatened with a handgun, raped repeatedly, photographed in sex acts and left alone in a locked room with a bucket for a toilet when Kim was gone.

Prosecutors allege Kim had at least three more victims between August and December, including a 15-year-old who told police she had been kept captive for two weeks in a home in North Las Vegas.