Jury recommends life in prison for 2 illegal immigrants in fatal bombing on Las Vegas Strip

Jury picks life in prison for 2 in Vegas bombing

LAS VEGAS — A Nevada jury chose life in prison without parole Tuesday for two illegal immigrants found guilty in a bombing that killed a hot dog stand vendor in a Las Vegas casino parking lot in 2007.

Convicted bombmaker Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, 29, of Nicaragua, and co-defendant Omar Rueda-Denvers, 33, of Guatemala, showed no reaction when the sentencing verdicts were read in Clark County District Court. Rueda-Denvers also uses the name Alexander Perez.

“They showed their emotions yesterday,” Duarte-Herrera defense attorney Clark Patrick said later, referring to pleas for mercy each man offered late Monday during a penalty hearing before the jury that convicted them Friday.

“I’m sure they were relieved,” said Christopher Oram, a lawyer for Rueda-Denvers. “They were facing a death sentence. That’s terrifying.”

The attorneys said both men intend to appeal their convictions. They face formal sentencing Nov. 5 before District Court Judge Michael Villani.

The panel of 11 women and one man deliberated about two hours late Monday and two hours Tuesday before reaching the middle sentence for first-degree murder in the May 7, 2007, slaying of 24-year-old Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio outside the pyramid-shaped Luxor resort.

Duarte-Herrera and Rueda-Denvers each were also found guilty of attempted murder, possession of an explosive or incendiary device and transportation or receipt of an explosive. Those charges carry a combined possible 58 years in state prison.

Jurors were shown detailed statements and a sketch Duarte-Herrera provided for police of the pipe bomb he built and hid in a 24-ounce 7-Eleven coffee cup planted atop Dorantes Antonio’s car. It was powered by a 9-volt battery and activated with a motion switch.

Prosecutors said Duarte-Herrera’s best friend, Rueda-Denvers, supplied the motive for the attack — jealousy and revenge against Dorantes Antonio for dating Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend, Caren Chali.

“We think this verdict reflects justice,” Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney Nell Keenan said.

Chali now 30, the mother of one of Rueda-Denvers’ two daughters, worked with Dorantes Antonio at a Nathan’s hot dog stand at the Luxor. The two just finished an overnight shift when Dorantes Antonio lifted the bomb-laden coffee cup off his parked car.

The blast blew off Dorantes Antonio’s hand and sent fragments across the top deck of the two-story parking structure. Dorantes Antonio, a Mexican immigrant, was killed by a piece of shrapnel to the forehead. Chali, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was walking around to the passenger door of the vehicle and escaped injury.

“It was pure luck we’re not here on a double murder,” Keenan told jurors Monday. “That bomb had the capability to kill anyone within 300 feet.”

The jury was also told about Duarte-Herrera’s claims of responsibility for two other bombings in the Las Vegas area — one set off by a timer that damaged a pickup truck outside a Home Depot store on Halloween 2006, and one detonated by remote control in the desert near Nellis Air Force Base. No one was hurt, and Duarte-Herrera has not been convicted in either case.

Neither man testified during their trial. Both apologized Monday and pleaded to be spared the death penalty.

“I ask you to have compassion over me,” Duarte-Herrera told the jury through a Spanish-language interpreter. “Taking my life doesn’t resolve anything and will not bring back Willebaldo.”

Rueda-Denvers promised to work hard and “contribute” in prison.

“I want to say so sorry to family Dorantes,” he said in halting English. “I want to say so sorry to family Chali. I want to say so sorry to my family. I want to say I love you to my daughters.”

Both men have been held at the Clark County jail since their arrests shortly after the bombing, which briefly raised fears of a terrorist attack on the Las Vegas Strip resort corridor.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Laguna Niguel, Calif., said the federal government will take custody of the men and begin deportation proceedings if they are ever released from state custody.