Las Vegas jury convicts former Marine in attack on pastor

A former Marine was found guilty but mentally ill late Wednesday for menacing his neighbors and attacking a pastor of a Las Vegas church.

Prosecutors argued during a 1½-week trial that Walter Laak knew that his actions in September 2016 were illegal, but they also acknowledged that the Iraq War veteran suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Laak’s attorney, James Ruggeroli, said the defendant had fallen into “a cave of delusions and darkness.” Ruggeroli had asked jurors to find Laak not guilty by reason of insanity. With such a verdict, Laak would have been sent to a mental health facility.

Instead Laak, 37, faces decades behind bars after being convicted of all but one of the 13 counts he faced, including attempted murder with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, aggravated stalking, assault with a deadly weapon and throwing a deadly missile. He was acquitted of one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Laak sincerely but delusionally believes that he had been persecuted and threatened by government agents,” Ruggeroli said. “I’m pleased that we were able to conclusively establish his mental illness. … There’s no question that Mr. Laak needs ongoing psychological intervention.”

Prosecutors pointed to Laak’s actions and statements as evidence of his awareness of criminal behavior.

He shot at a building from a distance, later telling authorities he did not want to incriminate himself, and fled from police, prosecutors said.

“He was intentionally avoiding the police because he knew he had done something wrong,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Mercer said.

On the witness stand this week, Laak acknowledged drinking upward of a dozen beers a day while smoking marijuana. He testified that he played loud 1990s rap and rock music to drown out the FBI, which he believed monitored his every move.

He said the government spoke to him through his computer and television, and at one point he believed authorities had infected him with the flu.

Laak, who served two tours of combat duty in Iraq, was accused of beating and attempting to run over a Las Vegas pastor with his vehicle, then driving to the victim’s home and firing multiple gunshots into it while the pastor’s wife and children hid inside. It was the third serious crime for which Laak faced charges since his return from the battlefield. He was given a general discharge in 2005.

His first tour of duty began at the onset of the invasion of Iraq and lasted through his unit’s arrival in Nasiriyah. He has told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that his experience led to his ongoing struggles and said he believed the pastor, a former neighbor, was an FBI “snitch.”

In June 2007, Laak shot and killed Juan Cordova in Las Vegas, but he was acquitted a year later by a jury on grounds that he acted in self-defense. Authorities returned his 9 mm Beretta handgun a month later, but he said he sold the weapon because of “bad memories.”

Two years after the shooting, Laak was arrested with another man and charged with multiple felony counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon. He received probation in 2012 after pleading guilty to a single gross misdemeanor charge of conspiracy.

Laak is scheduled to be sentenced for the 2016 attack in October.

“He is a very dangerous individual who has demonstrated time and time again how incredibly violent he can be,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Chad Lexis. “The jury this time was able to see that even though he is mentally ill, he is someone who knows the difference between right and wrong and therefore will be going to prison.”

Ruggeroli said he will argue at sentencing “for a punishment that reflects the jury’s determination that Mr. Laak is in fact mentally ill.”

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.