Man who killed 2 women near the Las Vegas Strip is sentenced to life in prison
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting two Northern California women near the Las Vegas Strip almost eight years ago has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Omar Talley, 38, was sentenced Tuesday after a judge reprimanded him for his lack of remorse, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Talley’s defense attorney argued that his client had apologized to the victims’ families, but Talley interrupted him to again state that he only expressed his “condolences” and claimed he was not involved in the killings, the newspaper reported.
Talley was convicted in October of two counts of murder with a deadly weapon and one count of attempted murder.
Talley initially faced the death penalty in the case, but prosecutors withdrew the possibility of capital punishment before his trial began, court records show.
He was accused of killing Melissa Yvette Mendoza and Jennifer Margarita Chicas, both 27, and wounding Chicas’ brother-in-law, Jerraud Jackson, in February 2016.
The victims were in Las Vegas for a family celebration, relatives said. Jackson survived the shooting and testified against Talley.
The victims were in a parking garage west of the Strip when an argument broke out with Talley and shots were fired, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said.
Chicas and Mendoza, both from the San Francisco Bay area, died of gunshot wounds to the chest, police said.
Talley told police he had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the shootings and remembered little of what happened, according to an arrest report.
Talley was paroled in 2015 after being sentenced to a Nevada prison for felony pandering of a child and child abuse convictions in 2010, court documents show.