Suspect indicted in Las Vegas Strip carnage

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  FILE - This image provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Ammar Harris in a booking photo from a 2012 arrest in Las Vegas. Harris, a self-described pimp has been indicted on charges that could bring the death penalty in a fatal shooting and fiery crash that killed three people on the Las Vegas Strip. The Clark County District Court grand jury also handed up a surprise indictment Friday April 26, 2013, against 27-year-old Harris. It stems from a 2010 case and charges him with robbery and felony sex assault. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, File)The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS –  A self-described pimp was indicted Friday in Nevada state court on charges that could bring the death penalty if he is convicted in a fatal shooting and fiery crash that killed three people on the Las Vegas Strip in February.

In an unexpected move, the Clark County District Court grand jury also indicted Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, 27, on a charge of robbery and three felony sex assault counts in a 2010 case that had been dismissed last year when the alleged victim refused to testify.

Prosecutor David Stanton said the second indictment didn't represent double-jeopardy under Nevada law because it was dismissed without prejudice before a preliminary hearing. That allows prosecutors to seek new charges after the alleged victim, who now lives in Texas, testified before the grand jury.

The rape charges could put Harris in prison for a minimum of 10 years. He could get two to 15 years on the robbery charge if convicted.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said he was considering the death penalty in the Las Vegas Strip incident but has not yet made a decision. Wolfson was out of town on Friday and unavailable for comment.

The indictment in the Strip shooting and crash accuses Harris of the same 11 felonies — three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and seven counts of discharging a weapon — that are contained in criminal complaints filed against him on Feb. 22.

Harris is expected to plead not guilty at his arraignment on May 6 in Clark County District Court in both cases. A Monday court date in Las Vegas Justice Court was canceled.

Harris was being held without bail at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas. His lawyers, David Schieck and Randall Pike, weren't immediately available for comment.

Tourists compared the carnage and crashes early Feb. 21 to a Hollywood action film. The stunningly violent shooting occurred at the busy intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, which is flanked by Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Bally's and the Flamingo.

Harris is accused of shooting from a black Range Rover into a Maserati sports car that then slammed into a taxi that burst into flames. Taxi driver Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas, and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., were killed. The Maserati driver, 27-year-old Kenneth Cherry Jr., died at a hospital.

Another man in the Maserati suffered gunshot wounds and survived. Five other people in several other vehicles sustained lesser injuries.

Police said Harris and Cherry had exchanged angry words at a casino valet stand before speeding with tires squealing up the neon-splashed Strip. Investigators found no gun in the Maserati and no evidence that Cherry returned fire before crashing.

Long before the shooting, Harris posted videos of himself fanning a stack of $100 bills and boasting about luxury cars, prostitutes and living in a house full of women who were all paying him. Records showed he lived in Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas.

Records also show Harris was never convicted of pimping. But the 2010 case prompted police to seek charges of pandering by force and felon in possession of a concealed weapon. Prosecutors went ahead with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon charges before the case was dropped.

Harris was previously convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol and convicted in Atlanta of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.

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Woman, 22, sought in Vegas Strip shooting, crash

LAS VEGAS –  A 22-year-old Miami woman with a history of prostitution arrests was identified Tuesday as a person of interest in a Las Vegas Strip shooting that triggered a spectacular fiery crash and left three people dead.

Police said Tineesha Lashun Howard was in a black SUV with Ammar Harris last week when he fired shots into a Maserati sports car at a self-promoted rapper who investigators say argued with Harris minutes earlier in the valet area of a glassy Strip resort.

Maserati driver Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr., 27, was mortally wounded before the sports car accelerated and slammed into a taxi that burst into flames -- killing the cab driver and his passenger, a businesswoman from Washington state.

Colleagues of the taxi driver posted a $35,000 reward Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of Harris, a 26-year-old felon whom police last year accused of being a panderer.

"We lost one of our own in cab driver Michael Boldon," said Brent Bell, president of Whittlesea Bell Corp. and the trustee of a trust fund established to pay the reward.

Bell called the death of Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash., "no less tragic," and said taxi drivers' hearts also went out to Cherry's family in Oakland, Calif.

Investigators have said there were several people in the black Range Rover SUV when the shots rang out. They have only identified Harris and Howard.

Police released several photos of the two together and said Howard also uses the name Yenesis Alfonzo.

A police statement said Howard has been arrested multiple times on charges including prostitution, trespassing, possession of a stolen vehicle and grand larceny. It wasn't immediately known if those arrests led to convictions.

Police said Howard was considered missing and possibly in danger.

Harris, who was convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol and convicted in Atlanta of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, is sought in Las Vegas on three murder charges.

Police have said they won't rest until he is in custody.

"We are confident we know what happened and how," Las Vegas police homicide Lt. Ray Steiber said Tuesday of the shooting and six-vehicle crash. "All this is about now is locating him and arresting him."

Police previously released a photo of Harris taken after his arrest last year in Las Vegas in a 2010 prostitution case using the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris. He was charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon, and police sought charges of pandering by force and felon in possession of concealed weapon charges. Court records show that case was dismissed last June.

Ads with Harris' photo also were posted Monday on billboards along major southern Nevada freeways.

The image shows Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Police said Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.

Public records show Harris previously lived in South Carolina and Georgia, and told police when he was arrested in Miami Beach last December that he had lived in Florida for about a year.

His SUV was found Saturday at a gated apartment complex where he lived, two blocks east of the Strip.

Steiber said a dealer ad that witnesses reported seeing in place of a license plate on the SUV after the crash had been replaced.

"The vehicle had been changed by the time we found it," the homicide lieutenant said Tuesday.

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