Prosecutors want Nevada trial for man with ties to Oct. 1 shooter
Douglas Haig isn’t going anywhere without a legal fight.
The Arizona man who sold bullets to the Oct. 1 gunman was indicted in Nevada last month on one count of manufacturing and selling ammunition without a license.
But his attorney, Marc Victor, thinks the case belongs in Arizona. Victor asked a judge this month to transfer the case to the neighboring state. He based the request on three arguments:
■ Haig only manufactured ammunition in Arizona.
■ There is too much potential juror prejudice against Haig in Nevada because of his widely reported connection to the gunman, Stephen Paddock.
■ A trial in Arizona would be more convenient for Haig.
But in a document filed Monday in Nevada federal court, prosecutors were not having it.
They argued that, while Haig might have manufactured ammunition in Arizona, he sold it in Nevada on at least one occasion.
Prosecutors also blamed any widely reported connection between Haig and Paddock on both the defendant and his attorney, who has not shied away from media interviews about his client.
In addition, the filing accused Victor of giving several false statements to the media, including the claim that “none of the ammunition sold to Paddock was used in the Route 91 festival shooting.”
When asked for clarification as to whether any of the ammunition Haig sold Paddock was used in the massacre, the U.S. attorney’s office in Nevada declined to comment.
As for the question of convenience, prosecutors wrote, “If it was not a burden for Haig to come to Las Vegas to carry on his illegal business, it should likewise not be too difficult to attend his trial in Las Vegas.”
Prosecutors noted that the federal courthouse in Las Vegas is about a five-hour drive or a one-hour flight from Haig’s home.
The next hearing in the Haig case is slated for October, more than a year after 58 concertgoers were killed and hundreds were injured in the Route 91 Harvest festival attack in Las Vegas. Paddock killed himself after the attack.
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Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.