Daughter, two others arraigned in mother’s death

By Dave Toplikar

Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011 | 8:47 a.m.

Three people who have been accused in the slaying of Katherine Cole, the 68-year-old woman found dead at her home last week, made their first appearance this morning in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Autumn Cole, 44, who is the daughter of Katherine Cole, Joseph Perez, 44, and Lorenzo Cardenas-Sanchez, 37, each were arraigned on charges of murder with a deadly weapon and being an accessory to murder, burglary, robbery and kidnapping.

Justice of the Peace Phillip Dabney read the charges and assigned public defenders to each of them.

Clark County Special Public Defender David Schieck, who represented Cole, asked the judge to delay setting the preliminary hearing to give him more time to meet with his client.

Dabney agreed and set the next court date for the three at 8 a.m. Aug. 11, when the date for their preliminary hearing will be set. Perez is being represented by Jeff Banks and Michael Cristalli will represent Cardenas-Sanchez.

Cole, Perez and Cardenas-Sanchez are being held at the Clark County Detention Center.

According to an arrest report, Perez, Autumn Cole’s boyfriend, said a man took Cole to her mother’s home in Las Vegas at 5 p.m. Friday. He said soon after she called him to come to the house.

When he arrived, according to the report, she was attempting to put her mother’s body in the trunk of her car. Perez said he persuaded Cole to leave the body in the garage, and then stepped on her. The two then stole her mother’s white Acura Integra, “pushed her head out of the way” and drove off, the report said.

Perez told police he was the person who used Cole’s debit and credit cards at an ATM and a Kmart. After carrying out a search warrant, police found the cards in the car Cardenas-Sanchez was driving.

Cardenas-Sanchez told police he took not only Cole but Perez to Katherine Cole’s home on Friday.

He said both got out of the car, but that Autumn Cole came back to the car and Perez remained in the house. He took Cole back to her house and left. He said he later met up with Cole and followed her in her mother’s car to Arizona Charlie’s, where they left the car. He and Perez then went to an Arco AM-PM, Kmart, the ATM and El Super Market using Cole’s debit cards to make purchases, the report said. Police recovered the Acura in the casino parking lot, and casino surveillance video shows a person leaving the car and exiting in a red van.