Man sentenced for shooting sister’s best friend

A Las Vegas man was sentenced Tuesday to 2½ to six years in prison for shooting to death his sister's best friend almost a year ago in what he called an accident.

Alexander Portillo, 20, pleaded guilty in November to voluntary manslaughter, unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging a weapon where a person might be endangered in the shooting death of 17-year-old Priscilla Castillo-Roque in February 2010.

Portillo apologized for his actions at the Tuesday sentencing hearing.

Deputy Public Defender Kristine Kuzemka asked Judge Michael Villani to place Portillo, a schizophrenic, on five years of probation overseen by District Court's mental health court.

Prosecutor Josh Tomsheck argued that Portillo's mental condition was not a factor and that prison time should be imposed because of the severity of the crime.

According to court records, officers were called to a home on Clancy Street, near Nellis Boulevard and Carey Avenue. When authorities arrived at the residence, they found Castillo-Roque near the front entrance with a single gunshot wound to her head. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Witnesses told police that there was a fight at a birthday party at the residence and that Portillo, who lived at the home with his family, fired a shotgun into the air to break it up.

Portillo then put the shotgun into his pants and went to his upstairs bedroom directly above the entrance, the report said. The shotgun then went off as he removed it from his pants, shooting through the floor and hitting Castillo-Roque in the head.

Afterwards, Portillo fled to a friend's home with the shotgun and some money before he was arrested. The shotgun was never recovered.