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For the week of Sept. 29, 1999 through Oct. 4, 1999

Convictions returned in Las Vegas murders of two Wood River Valley men


By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Two young men have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for last summer’s murders in Las Vegas of four youths, two of whom had been Wood River Valley residents.

Terell Young, 20, was sentenced Thursday following a month-long trial. Sikia Smith, 19, was sentenced in July.

They were convicted of helping to kill the four victims, who were found bound with duct tape and shot once each in the back of the head. Among them were 19-year-old Jeffrey Biddle and 21-year-old Tracey Gorringe.

Biddle had moved to Sun Valley in 1988 and attended The Community School and Wood River High School until 1994. Gorringe had spent a small amount of time in the area.

Prosecutors had alleged that neither of the defendants fired the shots that killed all four victims, but were accomplices in robbing them and preparing them for execution. The alleged shooter, Donte Johnson, 20, will be tried in January.

Even so, prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for both Young and Smith.

"The crime was just so horrific," said Clark County, Nev. chief deputy prosecutor Gary Guyman. "All three of the defendants knew exactly what was going to happen before they went into the home. They went in without any masks on. They knew that somebody was going to shoot those kids."

Jurors, however, denied the prosecution’s sentencing request.

According to a story in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Young’s sentencing came after a stormy, even violent, trial. The paper reported that at one point, Young "went berserk, clearing the defense table of all documents, overturning the prosecution table and tossing a chair at the jury box." At another point, he attacked a guard, "straddling the officer and pounding his face with both hands," the paper said.

The Review Journal also reported that during the trial, Young’s mother attacked one of her son’s attorneys, "aiming blows at his face and back while screaming curse words." The paper said that throughout the trial, a state of animosity existed between Young’s relatives and friends and those of the victims. When Young’s mother began crying loudly following the sentencing, Biddle’s mother asked, "What are you crying about? Your son is still alive. Ours are all dead."

The robbery netted less than $300 in cash, a videocassette recorder, a Nintendo game and a pager. Guyman said the defendants mistakenly believed the victims had earned thousands of dollars through drug sales.

 

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Copyright © 1999 Express Publishing Inc. All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited.