Around The State

Associated Press

Mother returned to Vegas in 1986 missing child murder case

LAS VEGAS — A 60-year-old woman who was arrested in Florida after police in Nevada reopened an investigation of the disappearance of her 3-year-old son in 1986 has been returned to Las Vegas in custody to face a murder charge.

A court official said Wednesday that Amy Elizabeth Fleming is due for an initial court appearance Thursday in North Las Vegas. Records show she was booked Tuesday into the Las Vegas jail.

Francillon Pierre has never been found. Fleming and then-fiance Lee Luster told police the boy, nicknamed Yo-Yo, wandered away from them at a swap meet.

But North Las Vegas police say reconstructed letters that Fleming tore up in jail in 1986, along and new witness accounts implicate her in the boy’s death.

Fleming was arrested Jan. 29 in Boca Raton, Florida.

13-below zero at South Lake Tahoe shatters record low

RENO — Record-cold weather followed the latest snowstorm into the Sierra, where the overnight low dropped to minus 13 degrees (minus 25 degrees Celsius) at South Lake Tahoe, California.

The National Weather Service says the new record low set early Tuesday along the Nevada-California line smashed the previous record of minus 8 degrees (minus 22 C) for the date set in 1990.

The service forecast highs in the mid- to upper-20s at Tahoe on Wednesday before lows drop to single digits Wednesday night, then back below zero Thursday night as another winter storm system makes its way through the region.

In eastern Nevada, the service expects lows of minus 4 to minus 6 (minus 20 to 21 C) in White Pine County along the Utah line late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Lawmakers raise concerns over Nevada speed camera bill

CARSON CITY — Nevada lawmakers on Tuesday expressed concern over legislation that would give governments the ability to install red light and speed cameras to capture traffic violations.

Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson said the enforcement cameras will first appear in low-income communities, instead of in more affluent neighborhoods.

“In Los Angeles or California, that is what happened, and that’s where they started,” he said during a hearing on the legislation. “They have more of them in low-income communities … They don’t have them in Brentwood.”

Atkinson said he killed a similar bill in 2009.

The bill says an automated traffic enforcement system creates a photograph that can be used as evidence of a traffic violation. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports more than a dozen states have both red light and speed cameras.

Amy Davey, an administrator with the Department of Public Safety, told lawmakers the system would only be used for traffic light and speed violations. She argued the system is shown to reduce crash fatalities and serious injuries. But after questioning, said some studies show rear-end collisions can increase.

Elko woman facing up to 10 years in prison for stabbing dad

ELKO — Prosecutors say a woman is facing up to a decade in prison after pleading guilty to stabbing her 78-year-old father at their Elko home.

The Nevada U.S. Attorney’s Office says 41-year-old Jean Angela Ortega pleaded guilty on Wednesday to assault resulting in serious bodily harm.

Authorities say Ortega is a member of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone nation.

According to a federal complaint, an officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs found Ortega’s father sitting on the living room floor covered in blood last February.

The man suffered non-fatal stab wounds to his back, abdomen and left arm.

Before being taken to a hospital, the man told first responders that his daughter had stabbed him.

Ortega has a May 29 sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse in Reno.