Details in killings revealed

The second of three teenagers alleged to be connected to the execution-style murders of four men was expected to be indicted today by a Clark County grand jury, with the indictment based in part on his own admissions to police.

The third suspect, already behind bars, could be indicted next week, and authorities have indicated that testimony elicited before the grand jury could result in a fourth arrest within a matter of days.

Today's indictment is expected to name Terrell Cochise Young, 19, who already was charged in the quadruple killing after his arrest when he was spotted by homicide detectives walking in front of a police station. The indictment will move the case directly to District Court for trial.

Nineteen-year-old Donte Johnson has already been indicted on charges he was the trigger man in the multiple murder, which was motivated by what two of the defendants admitted was a belief that a large quantity of money and drugs was in the victims' home.

The third defendant in the case, 18-year-old Sikia Lafayette Smith, told Metro police in a taped interview that a fourth man "was telling us that there was some guys he knows that we could rob," court records show.

Smith added that the man said that "if we were to go over there and do what we're going to do, that they would have to be killed because the guys knew where he lived and everything ... and knew Donte, too," the records say.

Sources close to the investigation said the suspects believed that there were promises of $10,000 in cash and a large quantity of drugs in the house at 4825 Terra Linda Ave., near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.

Young said the figure the fourth man gave him was $6,080.

The deal was supposed to be that the bandits could keep the money, and the fourth man would get the drugs, the records show.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon said the robbers found only $240 in the house in which they left the bodies of Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, Matthew Mowen, 19, and Peter Talamantez, 17, with their hands duct-taped behind their backs and bullets in their heads. Also left behind was a small quantity of drugs.

In Young's statement to police, he said the fourth man directed him, Johnson and Smith to the house and then left the trio to do the job.

In the statement, Young said the first victim, believed to be Mowen, who had been watering the front yard, was confronted and taken at gunpoint into the residence, where a second man was sitting in the living room.

The pair was made to lie on the floor and their hands and feet were taped by Johnson -- whose nickname is "Deco" -- according to Young, who said the trio was armed with two rifles and a pistol that was used to commit the murders.

Another man drove up a few minutes later and, when he came into the house, Smith "grabbed him by the face and told him to get on the floor," Young told police.

He recalled how the house was ransacked, but the only money found was in the pockets of the victims.

Smith told police in a recorded statement that "we searched through the house for the drugs and the money but we didn't find anything. (Young) found about 200 and something dollars and that was it."

"Deco counted all the money, and he was like, 'You haven't got enough money. You haven't got enough money.' " Young said, noting that at the time he was sitting in the living room having a beer and acting as "the lookout."

In an apparent attempt to placate the robbers, one of the victims paged a fourth man who was supposed to have several hundred dollars in his possession, according to the statement.

When that man arrived, he also was bound with duct tape and robbed, but Young said his continual arguing with the bandits resulted in his being hauled into the kitchen and Smith kicking him in the stomach.

Finally, Young said, Johnson turned up the volume on a stereo system and began shooting the victims, firing single shots into their heads.

Young said he already had walked out of the house when the shooting began, but returned to see the last man shot.

"I seen the shot, and I just seen the fool bleeding," he said.

When the trio returned to the home of the fourth unnamed suspect, Smith said the man was angry "because we didn't come back with cocaine."

When asked how he felt about the murders, Young responded, "I feel remorse. I feel that by me saying something (to police), it's like freeing them."

"I didn't want anybody to die, and the whole time I was in there, I didn't even want to be there. I was scared the whole time. I didn't think like they would die."

Young said he was telling his story "because I've been in (jail) so long and I've been thinking about it."

Indictments in the case replace the need for Justice Court preliminary hearings to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to hold defendants for trials in District Court.

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