Man avoids capital murder trial in 2007 slaying
May 2, 2012 - 2:31 pm
A 26-year-old man who once faced a capital murder trial was sentenced this week to seven to 20 years in prison after cutting a deal with prosecutors.
Gregory Spann pleaded guilty via an Alford plea to the October 2007 fatal shooting of 33-year-old Faustino Sigala after a dispute at Martin Luther King Park involving Spann's mother and younger brother.
Spann has maintained his innocence, claiming that his best friend, Christian Johnson, was the shooter. Johnson was the key witness in the case and fingered Spann as the shooter, court documents show.
By entering an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter and accessory to murder, Spann did not admit guilt but acknowledged prosecutors could prove their case against him.
The shooting happened about 9:45 p.m. on Oct. 27, 2007, at Martin Luther King Park, near Carey Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.
Sigala was pushing his two children and another boy on the swings at the park when the boy fell.
The boy's mother, Cheryl Ray of Las Vegas, was watching from inside her car, according to Spann's arrest report. She became irate with Sigala and began shouting at him.
Spann, who was with a group of men in the park that night, is also Ray's son. When he heard Ray shouting, he and the other men ran toward Sigala.
Homicide detectives say Spann then began shooting as Sigala fled. Sigala fell, and Spann fired several shots into him, according to investigators.
Sigala died in the arms of his older brother as his two children watched.
No one else was charged in the case. Initially, police had few leads though the park was crowded with people.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Noreen DeMonte said at the sentencing hearing before District Judge Douglas Herndon that detectives had arrested the right man in the case and insisted Spann was the shooter. DeMonte said that the deal was made because there were concerns prosecutors couldn't get a conviction in the case.
Those concerns stem from identification problems by several witnesses to the shooting, said Robert Langford, Spann's defense attorney.
Langford argued to Herndon that one witness, related to the victim, told police the shooter was a skinny black man with a light complexion. Langford pointed out that Spann has a dark skin tone and Johnson has a lighter skin tone.
Langford added that detectives began to suspect Spann was the shooter after receiving information from a confidential informant to the FBI. The informant was in a relationship with Johnson's mother, Langford said.
DeMonte noted circumstantial evidence that pointed to Spann as the shooter. Sigala was arguing with Spann's mother over Spann's younger brother falling off the swing and "the code of the street" would have required Spann to handle the situation himself.
After the shooting, Spann fled to New York City, where he was suspected but not charged in a robbery. Spann then went to Riverside, Calif., where he was arrested in 2008 and brought back to Las Vegas.
Spann apologized to Sigala's family for their loss but said he was not the shooter. He asked Herndon to sentence him to probation because he has been "sitting in (jail) for four years for a crime I didn't commit."
Herndon, who called Ray's argument with Sigala "ridiculous," recognized that there were issues with the witnesses to the shooting, but said he believed there was enough evidence in the case that a jury may have convicted Spann.
Herndon said for that reason he wouldn't sentence Spann to probation but would not give him the maximum sentence either. He then sentenced him to seven to 20 years in prison.
Spann was given credit for having already served more than 1,400 days in jail.
After the sentencing, two of Sigala's family members tearfully said they accepted the judge's decision because they too question whether Spann was the shooter.
Homicide detectives have maintained that Spann was the shooter, and they are not searching for any other suspects.
As part of the deal with Spann, prosecutors agreed to drop two charges including first-degree murder.
Spann, convicted of an assault and a gun charge in 2004, could have faced the death penalty if convicted on the murder count.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.