Bombing retrial postponed after juror tests positive for COVID-19

The retrial successful the fatal 2007 bombing astatine a Las Vegas Strip edifice has been postponed aft a juror tested affirmative for COVID-19.

Jurors, who are required to deterioration masks and beryllium socially distanced, heard opening statements and grounds Wednesday successful the retrial of Omar Rueda-Denvers.

The proceedings were archetypal enactment connected clasp Thursday aft 1 juror reported feeling sick and different had been exposed to the virus, defence lawyer Christopher Oram said.

Denvers, 45, is being retried for his relation successful the detonation of a metallic tube weaponry that near 1 antheral dormant successful the Luxor parking store connected May 7, 2007. The weaponry initially stoked fears of a imaginable violent onslaught connected the Strip.

But prosecutors person said it was planted by a jealous Rueda-Denvers.

The victim, 24-year-old Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio, was the caller fellow of Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend.

Rueda-Denvers and his person Porfirio Duarte-Herrera were recovered blameworthy and sentenced to beingness successful situation without parole. Prosecutors initially sought the decease penalty.

A national justice successful 2019 granted Rueda-Denvers a caller trial, ruling that helium was incapable to cross-examine his co-defendant, whose incriminating statements to constabulary were presented to the jury.

On Wednesday, Oram said Rueda-Denvers had followed his ex-girlfriend the nighttime of the bombing due to the fact that helium was looking for the girl they stock together. Duarte-Herrera had a past of weaponry making and had created the limb months earlier the crime, Oram said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner displayed information footage of a car pulling up to Antonio’s conveyance 90 minutes earlier the bombing.

He told jurors helium would beryllium that the operator was Rueda-Denvers and that the passenger, Duarte-Herrera, planted the weaponry connected apical of Antonio’s car.

“There is 1 communal thread that links each of this together,” helium said. “And it’s this man: Omar Rueda-Denvers.”

The trial, earlier District Judge Michael Villani, volition beryllium postponed until Sept. 13.

Contact Briana Erickson astatine berickson@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE connected Twitter.