Mayhem.net

July 22, 2000

A former Marine who prosecutors said was living out his fantasies when he gunned down four supermarket employees should be sentenced to death, a jury said yesterday.

The jury members say condemning a quadruple killer was the hardest decision of their lives.

By Carri Geer - Las Vegas Review-Journal

Saturday, July 22, 2000

Zane Floyd stared downward Friday as he learned the penalty jurors had chosen for him: a death sentence for each of the four people he shot and killed at random last year in a Las Vegas grocery store.

"He got exactly what he deserved," said Sy Kellogg, whose son-in-law died during the attack.

Jurors deliberated some 16 hours over three days before reaching their decision. Several cried as their verdicts were announced to the public in District Judge Jeffrey Sobel's courtroom.

Afterward, they met privately with Floyd's lawyers and District Attorney Stewart Bell, who helped prosecute the case.

"They just conveyed to us how hard their job was and how bad they felt for everybody," Bell said.

Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown said he spent about 20 minutes with the jury, which was made up of nine women and three men.

"They were of the opinion Zane had a choice, and he made the choice," Brown said. "We naturally are of the opinion that the jury had a similar choice, and we're disappointed in their choice."

Under Nevada law, Floyd's death sentences will be appealed automatically.

"The way our system works, I'm sure he'll outlive me," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot. Koot, who is 55, joined Bell in prosecuting the case.

The jury chose one of its members, Tim LeMaster, to act as its spokesman and read a statement to reporters after the verdicts were returned.

"On July 21, 12 compassionate people made the most difficult decisions of our lives thus far," LeMaster said. "The death penalty verdict required a great deal of soul searching for all 12 of us."

LeMaster, standing behind a lectern with his fellow jurors seated on both sides of him, also mentioned each of the four murder victims by name.

In addition, he mentioned a fifth shooting victim, who survived the attack, and a woman Floyd raped shortly before he went on his shooting spree.

"They will never be the same," the juror said. "These families and friends need our prayers right now."

He said Floyd, 24, and his family also need prayers.

"We ask that when you pray for the victims, all of us pray for Zane's family as well," LeMaster said.

He then had a message for the Las Vegas community.

"Do not assume any part of this process has been easy," he said. "If you have not sat on a jury and considered the death penalty, you simply cannot understand."

After LeMaster read the statement, he and the rest of the jurors filed out of the room without answering any questions.

Earlier, Sobel thanked the jurors for their service.

"It's an awesome responsibility, and I know how it's tearing some of you up to have done this," he said.

The same jury convicted Floyd last week of four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths he caused on June 3, 1999, at an Albertson's grocery store. The store, now a Raley's, sits at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard.

Jurors also convicted Floyd of burglary and attempted murder in connection with the shooting rampage, and four counts of sexual assault in connection with the earlier rape.

Sobel is scheduled to sentence Floyd Aug. 31 for all crimes other than the murders.

To impose the death penalty, jurors had to find that aggravating circumstances in the case outweighed mitigating circumstances.

The jury found that prosecutors proved all three aggravating factors they alleged: Floyd created a great risk of death to more than one person; he killed the victims at random and without apparent motive; and he was convicted of more than one count of murder in connection with the shootings.

Defense attorneys prepared a list of 16 mitigating factors for the jury to consider. The factors included the defendant's youth; his service in the military; his lack of a significant history of prior criminal activity; and his cooperation with police.

Floyd's attorneys also claimed he committed the murders while under the influence of "extreme mental or emotional disturbance."

Four Albertson's employees were killed in the grocery store on the morning of Floyd's rampage. They were Thomas Darnell, 40, Carlos "Chuck" Leos, 41, Dennis Troy Sargent, 31, and Lucille Tarantino, 60.

Employee Zachary Emenegger, 21, was shot twice but survived.

Kellogg, whose daughter married Leos about a year before the attack, was the only member of any of the victims' families who appeared in court for the decision on Floyd's punishment.

Victim advocate Sue Lopez, who works for the Victim-Witness Assistance Center in the district attorney's office, said some of the relatives live in other areas and had to return to their homes before the jury finished deliberating.

Others found it too difficult to watch the court proceedings, she said.

Floyd's parents, Michael and Valerie, testified during their son's penalty hearing and sat in court Friday with a group of supporters to hear the jury's decision.

They declined a request for an interview as they left the Clark County Courthouse.

During the penalty hearing, Valerie Floyd testified that she failed her son at times in his life. "And by doing that, I failed everybody in here," she said tearfully.

Michael Floyd told jurors he regrets "not being smart enough to realize" his son needed help.

On Friday, Koot said Floyd's parents raised their son well and deserve no blame for his crimes.

"His parents are good people," he said. "They've been injured just like anyone else."

Koot said he was surprised at the length of jury deliberations in the trial's penalty phase. He also said he noticed the emotion displayed by several jurors when the decision was announced.

"I think it has to be because of Zane Floyd's parents, rather than because of Zane Floyd," the prosecutor said.

When Floyd addressed the jury Tuesday, he said he could not explain his actions. However, he denied killing the victims for a thrill, as prosecutors had argued.

Speaking deliberately and without emotion, Floyd apologized for his conduct and said he will regret what he did for the rest of his life.

Brown said Floyd had been taking medication at the jail throughout the trial to help him sleep at night, and the medication caused his client's calm appearance in court.

Evidence at trial showed that Floyd spent time drinking and reflecting on the sorry state of his life before he went on his crime spree. He entered Albertson's around 5:15 a.m. and opened fire with a shotgun.

Floyd spent nearly four years in the Marine Corps before his abuse of alcohol led to an honorable discharge in July 1998.

He had trouble holding down jobs after that and moved into a guest home behind his parents' house two days before the shootings.

After his arrest, Floyd told police he always had wondered what it would be like to shoot someone.

On Thursday, as the Floyd jurors deliberated his punishment, another jury in the building returned a death sentence against a man who stabbed and strangled his ex-wife in front of their 3-year-old daughter.

Floyd's attorneys asked Sobel to sequester jurors in their case to prevent the panel from being influenced by the outcome of the other case.

Sobel denied the request but said he would tell the jury not to read any print media or watch any television news when they went home that night.

Suspect details grisly fantasies

Court filings show a man arrested after a rampage in June told police he had visions of shooting people.

Saturday, January 08, 2000

The man accused of killing four people at a Las Vegas supermarket in June told police the rampage was the culmination of a lifelong fantasy.

"Call me crazy, psychotic, whatever. I've just always wanted to know what it's like to shoot someone," 23-year-old Zane Floyd told a police detective after he was arrested on June 3 outside the Albertson's, now Raley's, at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard.

This and other comments made by Floyd are included in recent court filings by prosecutors in the capital murder case scheduled for trial March 6.

Floyd also repeatedly portrayed himself as a loser, expressed his love for his shotgun, lamented that he was forced out of the Marines and said he decided to act on his violent fantasies after returning home from a disastrous night at the blackjack tables.

"I was just thinking, 'What's it going to be like to shoot somebody?' " Floyd said of his thoughts as he approached the store.

Patricia Kirby, who has interviewed serial killers and mass murderers as an academic and during her 20 years in law enforcement, said Floyd has much in common with those accused of similar crimes.

"There are just red flags all over the place in his background," said Kirby, a former homicide detective in Baltimore and a former FBI special agent whose last assignment was as a psychological profiler in the Behavioral Sciences Unit.

Authorities allege Floyd entered the supermarket dressed in camouflage and used a shotgun to fatally shoot four people. He was arrested outside the store after police persuaded him to drop the shotgun he had been holding to his head.

Defense attorneys are not disputing the general allegations of what occurred at Albertson's. They instead plan to focus on as yet undisclosed factors that they say compelled Floyd to commit the crime.

Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown on Friday declined to discuss Floyd's statements in detail, saying any comments would be particularly inappropriate while defense attorneys are seeking a change of venue on the grounds that massive publicity has caused the public to reach certain conclusions in advance of the trial.

"These conclusions are going to be reached having not had the benefit of hearing about who this boy is, and how a person's actions at any given moment are a product of his or her past experiences," Brown said.

Defense attorneys are seeking separate trials on the events at Albertson's and the reported rape of an outcall dancer about an hour before the shootings. In opposing this effort, prosecutors say the two events are inextricably linked.

"It is the state's theory that the defendant intended to satisfy two fantasies before taking his own life or permitting the police to kill him," Chief Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot wrote in opposing the bid for separate trials.

These fantasies are described in statements made by Floyd and the dancer, an Oregon native whom Floyd summoned to his parents' home on Oakey Boulevard after a night of drinking and gambling.

The 20-year-old woman worked for Love Bound outcall service, one of dozens of local businesses that dispatch dancers to strip for customers, typically in a hotel room.

The woman told police Floyd grabbed a shotgun immediately after she arrived at his home about 4 a.m. She said Floyd told her she was going to help him fulfill "a sick fantasy inside of his head."

She said he raped and terrorized her for about an hour, then donned combat boots and his Marine Corps camouflage shirt and pants. He placed a bathrobe over his clothing, and before leaving the home told the woman he planned to kill the first 19 people that he encountered.

About 15 minutes later, Floyd walked into the Albertson's about a half-mile from his home and began firing. Four employees were slain, and another was seriously wounded.

After he surrendered and was placed in a patrol car, Floyd gave officers a taped statement in which he described the carnage in ugly detail. He also reflected on the events that caused him to snap.

He told officers he had once again lost all his money playing blackjack the night before. "I'm so (expletive) far in debt, dude. The blackjack table's calling me, man," he said.

Floyd said he left the casino, went home, drank a few beers and reflected on the sorry state of his life.

"I got nowhere to go in life, dude. You know, I'm a (expletive) loser. I'm a bouncer, and I just moved back in with my parents," said Floyd, who worked part time in a local bar and had recently been fired from his job as a security guard.

Floyd told the officers that amid this introspection a question popped into his head. "What would it be like to shoot somebody?" he wondered to himself.

He later told a homicide detective this was not the first time he contemplated this question. He traced this fascination back to early childhood, when he saw his first war movie.

"I've always just wanted to go to war and kill people, and you know that's why I joined the Marine Corps. That's the only reason I joined the Marine Corps," he said.

Floyd was no more successful as a Marine than he was as a civilian. Though he served four years and was honorably discharged in July 1998, he said the Marines had made it clear he was not welcome to re-enlist.

"I was basically forced out," the former machine-gunner told the detective. "I had no chance of re-enlisting. It would have been denied."

Floyd said he wanted to kill himself as he left the supermarket and encountered police, but could not do it.

Though he hoped police would shoot him, he said he had too much respect for law enforcement to draw their fire by pointing the weapon at them.

Kirby, the former FBI profiler who now teaches at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, said others who commit multiple homicides share Floyd's desire to be shot down.

"They are too cowardly to kill themselves, and if they are killed by the police they go out in a greater blaze of glory. Their name is remembered," said Kirby, who holds degrees in social psychology, criminology and sociology-justice.

Kirby said Floyd exhibits many of the common traits of people accused of committing multiple homicides.

Typically, these people begin to develop fantasies as children, often to cope with some psychological problem or an unpleasant reality.

"These fantasies are of a violent nature. They fantasize violence and death," Kirby said.

These individuals usually are able to control the fantasies through their teen years, then begin to act them out while in their early 20s.

Many of the multiple killers Kirby has interviewed refer to themselves as losers and underachievers. Often, they see the military as a means to gain some validation, and at first the uniform grants them a sense of power they had not previously enjoyed.

Yet dishonorable discharges are common among this group, as they replicate the same pattern of failure they had hoped to escape. "They are not exactly shining stars," Kirby said.

The violent fantasies nurtured since childhood generally are put into action in response to a triggering event of some sort, often involving a member of the opposite sex, Kirby said.

Authorities have said Floyd and his girlfriend had a disagreement at the Rio the night of the rampage, when she wanted to leave and he did not. But prosecutors have described this as more of a spat than a full-blown argument.

Kirby said Floyd's decision to don camouflage before trekking to Albertson's likely reflects the clothing he wore in the bloody fantasy he had cultivated since childhood.

"He is going to war," she said. "When these individuals finally act out their fantasy it is kind of like a script. They have gone over and over it so many times in their mind that when they finally act it out it is very familiar to them."

The Arizona Republic

June 8, 1999

A man accused of gunning down four people in a supermarket also raped an escort service employee an hour before the rampage and told her he planned to kill the first 19 people he saw, prosecutors said Monday.

Zane Floyd, 23, was to be arraigned Monday on four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, but prosecutor Bill Koot asked for a delay until Wednesday to allow for time to add sexual assault charges.

Contra Costa Times

June 5, 1999

With four grocery store workers already shot to death, a fifth wounded and others fleeing or hiding, the killer apparently ran out of victims, an investigator said Friday.

"I think it's remarkable that we didn't end up with more victims," Las Vegas Metro Police homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said. "We believe what happened was that he quit because there was no one else to victimize."

The Philadelphia Inquirer

June 4, 1999

A camouflage-clad man roamed through a supermarket blasting workers with a shotgun early yesterday, killing four people and critically wounding a fifth before being arrested by officers who talked him out of taking his own life.

Police said Zane Floyd, 23, was armed with a shotgun when he was taken into custody without incident outside the store.

Watertown Daily Times

June 4, 1999

The first blast came suddenly, ripping through a supermarket clerk tending to shopping carts just inside the front door.

Press-Telegram

June 4, 1999

LAS VEGAS -- A camouflage clad man armed with a pump-action shotgun roamed through a suburban supermarket before sunrise Thursday, killing four employees and wounding a fifth. Police arrested him in the parking lot after talking him out of taking his own life.

Floyd's rage recalled

Seven witnesses recount a man's behavior and what happened the day of a shooting at a local grocery store.

Seven witnesses gave harrowing accounts Wednesday of how they survived the bloody morning when a shotgun-wielding man stormed into a local Albertson's and killed four employees.

The most dramatic testimony came from 22-year-old Zachary Emenegger, who provided jurors with a step-by-step narration of the security videotape that captured his confrontation with murder suspect Zane Floyd.

The gunman -- who defense attorneys acknowledge was Floyd -- chased Emenegger around a produce island and shot him in the back of the right shoulder.

He then stood over the victim, who just minutes earlier had been stocking shelves, and fired another blast that struck Emenegger in the arm.

"I figured I was going to have to play dead, so I closed my eyes, jerked my whole body and lay there," Emenegger said. "He leaned over me and said, `Yes, yes, you're dead.' "

Emenegger, now employed outside the grocery business, has undergone extensive rehabilitation and multiple surgeries. He showed no obvious infirmities and maintained his composure throughout his testimony.

Floyd, 24, looked down at the defense table as Emenegger pointed toward him when asked to identify his assailant.

A total of 19 witnesses testified Wednesday in the trial that began with jury selection Tuesday morning. Jurors this morning will hear two taped confessions Floyd gave to police in the hours after the shootings.

District Judge Jeffrey Sobel told jurors they likely would begin their deliberations this afternoon. A penalty hearing would begin Monday if jurors find Floyd guilty of first-degree murder.

Defense attorneys have conceded that Floyd raped an outcall dancer and committed the shootings at the Albertson's, now Raley's, at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard. In seeking a life sentence, they say his mind had become unhinged that morning.

Prosecutors contend the death penalty is the only fitting punishment for the man responsible for the slayings. Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said the killings made June 3, 1999, "a day Las Vegas will never forget."

Killed were Thomas Michael Darnell, 40, Carlos "Chuck" Leos, 41, Dennis Troy Sargent, 31, and Lucille Tarantino, 60.

On Wednesday, six Albertson's employees and a woman who was delivering flowers described the terror that ensued when those inside the store realized an armed man was roaming the aisles.

Christine Goldsworthy, a bookkeeper, listened as prosecutors played a tape of the emergency call she placed at 5:16 a.m. from an elevated office at the front of the store.

"There's shots all over the place, please hurry," she pleaded in the call.

Stephen Johnson, the produce manager, said he was filling buckets with cut flowers when he heard the shots he initially attributed to machinery backfiring. He hid in a produce cooler with a customer and two employees of a flower wholesaler.

Johnson said he ventured outside after a period of silence, and within seconds heard a man's voice.

"Hi, how are you? What's going on this morning?" he heard the man say.

Johnson said he heard Tarantino say something he could not discern, followed immediately by a gunshot. Johnson said he quickly found a new hiding place.

Those remaining in the cooler heard the gunshot that claimed Tarantino and were convinced that Johnson had been slain. Pacific Floral employee Aimie West said she and a co-worker remained inside the cooler for three hours.

Mark Schmitt, the meat manager, said he went to investigate after hearing the initial blasts that a co-worker thought might be gunfire. "That's when a customer ran through the meat room and said there is a guy out there with a shotgun shooting people," he said.

Schmitt, a customer and two co-workers climbed a ladder to an elevated compressor room that Schmitt was the last to enter.

"As I was going in there, starting to close the door, that's when I observed the customer with the shotgun walking by. I had an aerial view of him," he said.

Schmitt said the gunman held the gun at waist level and panned it from side to side before him.

"He had the most evil look on his face you've ever seen. He just wanted to kill," said Schmitt.

Kelly Pearce, a service deli clerk, was talking to Leos when the shooting began. She ran to Linda Torres, the bakery manager, and pulled her toward a nearby freezer.

Unable to believe her fellow employees' account, Torres left the donuts she was preparing and walked toward the produce section to see for herself.

"I saw a man there with a shotgun chasing another man," said Torres, who later learned she witnessed the attack on Emenegger.

She then joined Pearce in the freezer, where both said they were able to hear a brief exchange between a man and Tarantino. Torres said she could not hear the actual words, but said it ended with a gun blast.

Pearce offered a more complete account, though a defense attorney noted she told police she never heard the gunman speak.

"He either said, `Hi, how are you doing?' or, `Hi, what are you doing?' " Pearce said.

"Oh my God," she said Tarantino responded a moment before a shot rang out.

Security videotape captured the shooting of Emenegger, who had passed Leos' body while fleeing toward a door at the rear of the store. His flight to safety ended when Floyd exited another aisle and blocked his path.

Emenegger ducked behind a produce island containing watermelons, while Floyd took a position on the opposite side before charging around and shooting the young man twice.

The videotape showed Floyd came back about a minute later and peered down at Emenegger.

After Floyd again departed, Emenegger rose to his feet, took several steps toward the rear door, then collapsed.

"I was trying to get to a phone to call 911," said Emenegger.

'I can't tell you why'

A murderer speaks to the court in front of 12 jurors who will decide whether he should die.

Sitting just a few feet from the 12 men and women who soon will decide his fate, Zane Floyd faced courtroom spectators Tuesday and stoically spoke about his fatal June 1999 shooting spree.

"There's not a whole lot I can say to the families of the four people I killed," Floyd said after taking the witness stand. "I can't take back what I've done. If there was any way I could, I would."

Floyd, 24, made the comment during the penalty phase of his murder trial. He gave what is called an "unsworn statement," which meant prosecutors were not allowed to cross-examine him.

The same jury that convicted Floyd on Thursday of four counts of first-degree murder soon will be asked to choose his sentence. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, but defense attorneys hope to persuade jurors to impose a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.

Floyd's statement to the jury gave no new insight into what motivated him to open fire on June 3, 1999, inside an Albertson's supermarket.

He said he spends hours inside his jail cell each day wondering what triggered the rampage.

"I can tell you I didn't kill those people for fun," he said. "I didn't do that -- not for fun."

After his arrest, Floyd told police he always had wondered what it would be like to shoot someone. On Tuesday, the defendant called his actions inexcusable.

"I know what I did, and I'm going to take responsibility for what I did, but I can't tell you why I did it," he said.

Speaking deliberately and without emotion, Floyd apologized for his conduct and said he will regret what he did for the rest of his life.

Floyd's statement capped a full day of testimony focusing on the young man's life.

Psychologist Edward Dougherty spoke for much of the afternoon and said Floyd suffers from "mixed personality disorder with borderline, paranoid and depressive features."

Dougherty also said Floyd continues to suffer from attention-deficit disorder, for which he received treatment as a teen-ager.

The psychologist, who was hired by the defense, said the symptoms of Floyd's mental disease were exacerbated by his long history of drug and alcohol abuse.

"He's a very fragile personality," the witness said. "He is mentally ill."

Dougherty said Floyd had some kind of "psychotic break" on the morning of the shootings. "He snapped," the psychologist said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot was scolded more than once by District Judge Jeffrey Sobel for being argumentative during his cross-examination of the defense witness.

At one point, the prosecutor debated with the witness about what qualifies a person as a sociopath.

Although Floyd has exhibited some anti-social behaviors during his lifetime, Dougherty said, he is not a sociopath. Sociopaths have no conscience, the psychologist told jurors.

"Zane has a conscience," the witness said. "It's quite clear."

Prosecutors likely will call their own psychologist to the witness stand this morning, and closing arguments are expected to follow.

Floyd's parents testified Tuesday, as did a psychiatrist who treated him when he was 13.

Dr. Norton Roitman said Floyd was taking Ritalin, a stimulant used to treat attention-deficit disorder, when the boy was referred to him in 1989.

Roitman said the medication was not working, so he decided to prescribe an anti-depressant instead. The psychiatrist said he has had no contact with Floyd since that year.

Floyd's father, Michael, who adopted him as a young boy, said his son was in the first or second grade when a teacher said the child needed to be placed in a special education program.

Michael Floyd said he rejected the idea, because he believed such programs were "for retarded people."

The witness said he now regrets "not being smart enough to realize" his son needed help.

Before the killings occurred, the witness said, he was planning to have a heart-to-heart talk with his son, but he never did.

"I wanted to explain to him how tough this stage of his life was going to be," Michael Floyd said.

The witness said he knew his son was trying to figure out what to do with his life.

"It's very easy to get despondent, and I just wanted to let him know I understood," he said.

After learning about the shootings, Michael Floyd said, he went home and watched news accounts of his son's arrest.

"I saw an individual on television that I didn't know," he testified.

Michael Floyd, who took long pauses and fought back tears throughout his testimony, said he does not know what caused the attack.

"But the son and the man I raised was incapable of an act like this," he said.

Floyd's mother, Valerie, cried as she showed jurors pictures of her son from his childhood.

She said she and her husband sent a letter to the families of their son's victims shortly after the shootings to let them know the couple's thoughts were with them, "and we were sorry."

"My heart's broken for them," said the woman, who lost her first child to sudden infant death syndrome in 1974.

Zane Floyd was living in a guest house on his parents' West Oakey Boulevard property at the time of the shootings.

The Albertson's store, now Raley's, was less than a mile away at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard.

Killed that morning were four store employees: Thomas Darnell, 40, Carlos "Chuck" Leos, 41, Dennis Troy Sargent, 31, and Lucille Tarantino, 60. Zachary Emenegger, 21, was shot twice but survived.

Valerie Floyd said she and her husband moved to another location about three months later.