Lawyer says Arizona man’s bullets not fired in Las Vegas shooting

Attorneys for Douglas Haig, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of manufacturing ammunition without a license, filed a motion to prevent the government from “introducing irrelevant and unduly prejudicial evidence concerning Stephen Paddock’s October 2017 mass shooting.”

Evidence that tied Haig to the unfired cartridges in Paddock’s suite at Mandalay Bay should be deemed irrelevant, Arizona lawyer Marc Victor wrote.

“Even if it were relevant, any probative value would be substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, misleading the jury and needlessly cumulative,” according to the document, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

Federal prosecutors have tied Haig to the gunman, who killed 58 people before taking his own life, by pointing to a box with a shipping label bearing Haig’s name and Mesa, Arizona, address.

Victor’s brief states that an FBI scientist would testify that unfired cartridges found in the suite were produced by Haig’s equipment.

“The evidence does not have any tendency to prove Mr. Haig engaged in the business of manufacturing ammunition without a license,” Victor wrote. “The mass shooting has so permeated the District of Nevada and the nation that there is a danger that even a reference to where or when the cartridges were found will reveal to jurors this case is associated with the mass shooting.”

Haig sold Paddock ammunition on two occasions, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors have said that both armor-piercing and incendiary ammunition with toolmarks that matched a reloading press found in Haig’s at-home workshop had been loaded into five of the gunman’s rifles.

Prosecutors have yet to respond to the defense motion.

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