Published Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 | 1:08 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 | 2:40 p.m.
Christine Sanchez
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Drug use may be a factor in the defense of a 47-year-old Las Vegas woman jailed and accused of killing three roommates last week at a home where they all lived, the woman's lawyer said Thursday.
Christine Rose Sanchez has a back injury disability and takes prescription medication, attorney Robert Langford said following Sanchez' arraignment on felony murder charges. Langford declined to specify the drug.
The Dec. 22 shooting left Natasha Henry, Stanley Herring and Cordell Jones dead in a house in Las Vegas.
A Las Vegas judge set a Jan. 26 preliminary hearing of evidence in the case. Langford said Sanchez plans to plead not guilty. She is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.
Langford also previously represented Sanchez in a murder case that prosecutors dismissed last June. That case stemmed from the September 2014 death of a woman in North Las Vegas.
Sanchez was indicted in the death of 52-year-old Bonnie Marie Rice, but Langford said DNA evidence did not link Sanchez to the crime.
Prosecutor Jake Villani, who handled both cases, said he doubted drug use was responsible for what he termed Sanchez's violent history.
In the current case, the owner of a home in southeast Las Vegas where Henry, 43, Herring, 39, and Jones, 34, were killed told police he heard gunshots and saw Sanchez with a gun before she left the house.
The witness told police he let Sanchez use his telephone and he heard her tell someone that she killed the three people.
Sanchez was arrested later. She told detectives she was asleep when gunfire erupted, according to a police report.
