Testimony wraps up in Las Vegas trial of man accused in iPad killing

Lawyers are expected to present closing arguments Tuesday in the murder trial of 24-year-old Michael Solid, accused in the death of a Las Vegas high school student who refused to give up his iPad.

Prosecutors have alleged that Solid was behind the wheel of a white Ford Explorer that ran over 15-year-old Marcos Vicente Arenas as he tried to recover his iPad.

On the afternoon of May 16, 2013, one of Solid’s friends, Jacob Dismont, wrested the device away from the boy and jumped into the SUV, with Solid waiting in the driver’s seat, according to prosecutors.

Dismont, now 21, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery and is awaiting sentencing.

After four days of testimony, prosecutors rested their case without calling Dismont to the witness stand. Defense attorneys called two witnesses, and Solid did not take the stand.

One of the final witnesses for the prosecution, Matthew Nicholas, told police that Solid sold him the iPad for $80. Nicholas, who is in federal custody on unrelated charges, then handed the device off to someone else.

Prosecutors said Marcos had cherished the iPad because his family rarely could afford high-priced electronics. His father, Ivan Arenas, took out a payday loan to purchase the device for $249 from a pawn shop. It had been a birthday gift and a reward for doing well in school.

After encountering Dismont at a service station near his northwest valley home, Marcos struggled and screamed. Traffic stopped as he was dragged from a sidewalk onto Charleston Boulevard.

Just before testimony in the trial began, the Nevada Supreme Court said it would not stop cameras with a television show about the Clark County district attorney’s office from filming the trial. But in an order last week, the high court also asked for details about the show.

Attorneys with the Clark County special public defender’s office had argued that Investigation Discovery’s “Las Vegas Law,” which recently was greenlit for a second season, is not a news entity and should not be allowed to record the proceedings. The production company provides entertainment, rather than news, the defense lawyers argued.

Lawyers for the docudrama’s production company, My Entertainment TV, said defense attorneys made a “baseless” claim.

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