For $250K you too can control Vegas' Bellagio Fountains

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It's true that you can do just about anything in Las Vegas --for a price.

The Fountains of Bellagio, located in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, can be best described as a majestic showcase of water and music that leaves many tourists mesmerized.

Hyde Bellagio, a club inside of the hotel, offers a waterfront patio for customers to check out the fountain show, and now you can pay to $250,000 to control the action.

"Through out different bottle presentations, all these ideas started coming up and we thought, 'Wait a second, we need to utilize this amazing property that we have,'" said Mio Danilovic, vice president of operations for SBE Nightlife.

For $250,000, the club provides you with a 30-liter bottle of Ace of Spades, the equivalent to 40 bottles of champagne, and a gold-plated box with a red button to your outdoor patio VIP table. Once you press the red button, the Hyde Bellagio team sends a signal to the production crew on-site to set off the popular Las Vegas landmark.

"We stop the whole operation. Everybody comes out to the patio. The spotlight is on the customer. We do a big countdown. He hits the button and sets off the water fountain," said Danilovic. "It's the ultimate VIP experience and the ultimate presentation that you can get here in Vegas. 

The cost of the Ace of Spades bottle costs $250,000, so that's really what you're paying for.  Customers don't get to pick special colors or features; they just get to control when the fountains starts up again --even if it's after 12 midnight which is when it typically shuts down. 

To date, only one person has actually paid for this extravagant package. But Danilovic is confident there will be more to come.

"As more people buy (the package) it will be more and more popular because the other guy who can't spend $250,000 will say 'wait a second, I want to do that…I want people talking about me as well,' " said Danilovic.

Customers competing over who can spend $250,000 in one night? Yup, only in Vegas.

Pete Griffin is part of the Junior Reporter program at Fox News. Get more information on the program here.

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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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Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr

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Teen facing 6 felonies in Vegas restaurant crash

Published April 11, 2013

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS –  A teenager accused of plowing a speeding car into a crowded Las Vegas restaurant is being charged with six felonies, including four counts of driving under the influence of drugs that could get him a total of 80 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Thursday that 18-year-old Gage James Lindsey had Xanax and more than three times the legal limit of marijuana in his blood in the April 1 crash at the Egg & I restaurant on Sahara Avenue.

He's also charged with reckless driving and leaving the scene before witnesses tackled him and held him for police.

At a hearing Thursday, Lindsey stood in handcuffs and stared straight at a judge who refused to reduce his $500,000 bail. She scheduled an evidence hearing for Aug. 22.

Lindsey's lawyer, Sean Sullivan, calls the wreck a tragic accident.

Police say the teen's 1993 Lexus sedan entered a turn lane, jumped a median, and landed in oncoming traffic. It was hit by a Mitsubishi sedan and a Ford pickup truck before crashing into the eatery.

Rescuers pulled several people out from underneath the car, which ended up balancing on a patio chair.

The crash seriously hurt 10 people, though none of the injuries were life-threatening.

One victim had a collapsed lung and fractures in his spine, arm and shoulders, while several others had broken bones, according to the police report.

One patron who was dining with her sisters when the crash happened said the motor was still revving when the car came to rest.

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Diners hurt after vehicle crashes into Las Vegas restaurant

Published April 01, 2013

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS –  Police say a vehicle crashed into a Las Vegas restaurant during the lunch hour, injuring some diners.

Las Vegas police Officer Laura Meltzer said she didn't immediately know the number of people hurt and didn't know if anyone was killed when the vehicle hit the Egg & I restaurant on Sahara Avenue a little after 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Meltzer says rescuers initially summoned at least 10 ambulances to the eatery a few blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Police say one person was arrested.

Meltzer says some of the injured may have been dining on a patio outside the restaurant, and witnesses may have grabbed the driver when he or she tried to leave the scene.

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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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