DA to seek death penalty in four slayings

Prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for three teenagers charged in the August execution-style quadruple murder in southeast Las Vegas.

"We think killing four people is worse than killing one," District Attorney Stewart Bell said. "It's simple mathematics."

The district attorney's office earlier this month let 19-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer escape the death penalty by plea bargaining his murder case to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Donte Johnson, also 19, is charged with being the trigger man who on Aug. 14 shot four duct-taped men -- Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, Matthew Mowen, 19, and Peter Talamantez, 17 -- in the head in what prosecutors believe was an apparent drug money rip-off. The victims were robbed of $240 and a pager, according to Metro Police.

Statements to police by the two other defendants -- Sikia Lafayette Smith, 18, and Terrell Cochise Young, 19 -- indicated there was a belief that as much as $6,000 in cash and a quantity of drugs was in the house at 4825 Terra Linda Ave., near Nellis Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

Johnson and Young already have been indicted on multiple murder, kidnapping and robbery charges in the case. Smith is expected to be indicted Wednesday.

Authorities have indicated that a fourth arrest is imminent.

In their statements to Metro homicide detectives, Smith and Young indicated that a fourth man had provided the information that led to the ill-fated robbery.

Smith stated the fourth man said that "If we were going 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."

When the defendants returned to the home of the fourth suspect, according to their statements, he was angry because they had not brought him any of the reported drugs.

While Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon confirmed that autopsy reports showed there were drugs in the systems of the four victims, only a small quantity of drugs was found in the Terra Linda Avenue home.

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