Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Lisle faces another death penalty

For former North Las Vegas Police Chief Ron Lusch and his wife, the conviction of their son's murderers had to provide a measure of satisfaction.

But the case -- which resulted in guilty verdicts Thursday to first-degree murder charges for Kevin Lisle, 25, and Jerry Lopez, 26 -- still has a day or two to go before it will finally end.

The same jury will return to District Judge Sally Loehrer's courtroom Monday for a penalty hearing to determine if the pair should be sentenced to death or spend their lives in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

Lisle already knows about such hearings. He went through one after his murder conviction for the October 1994 shooting death of Kip Logan after a traffic incident on the U.S. 95 Expressway at Valley View Boulevard.

The jury in that case sentenced Lisle to be executed by lethal injection.

Logan's murder, however, occurred two months after 19-year-old Justin Lusch was gunned down on a dusty road in northwest Las Vegas.

The motive, according to trial testimony, was that Lusch owed the killers money for a small quantity of methamphetamine or that he simply was perceived by them to be "a snitch."

While the physical evidence linking Lisle and Lopez to the murder was thin, the defendants bragged to friends of the late-night slaying near Lone Mountain, according to testimony from those friends.

Defense attorneys contended that the confession stories were contrived in plea bargains that kept the witnesses out of prison for their involvements in the Logan murder.

But the jury found the witnesses to be believable and convicted Lisle and Lopez after five hours of deliberations over two days.

In testimony Tuesday, 18-year-old John Melcher testified that Lisle told him how he looked Lusch in the eyes before killing him and "got a thrill out of it."

Lisle explained to Melcher that he would understand what he meant the first time he murdered someone, the teenager told the jury.

Melcher said Lopez admitted he was watching in the rear view mirror of the car he was driving as Lisle fired several shots.

Melcher had been charged with Lisle in Logan's slaying but agreed to be a state witness against Lisle and Lopez in a plea bargain that sent his case to juvenile court, where he pleaded guilty to being an accessory in Logan's death.

The same deal was given to 16-year-old Adam Evans, who testified Monday that Lisle and Lopez also confessed to him.

Both teenagers received probation, although Evans became involved in drugs and now is residing in a youth training camp.

Lisle

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