Man charged in 2005 fatal shooting of boss in Henderson

A man was charged with murder more than 13 years after his former boss, a construction company owner, was found shot to death at the company’s drafting room in Henderson.

Gerald Gage, 76, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center last week on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.

At the end of August 2005, employees of the DLC Construction Company arrived at work to find 63-year-old owner Danny Lee Cates dead, lying in a pool of blood.

Two employees told police they arrived at work early in the morning and found Cates’ body. Gage had a different story, according to his arrest warrant.

DLC General Manager Gerald Gage told Henderson police he arrived at the office first, as usual, but noticed a white truck he didn’t recognize in the parking lot. He said he was kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of men before he made it into the building, the warrant states.

Gage initially said he was bound with zip ties, gagged and blindfolded. The warrant states he told police the group of men put him in the truck and drove away, but he escaped and returned to the company’s office, where another employee had already discovered Cates’ body.

Over the next 13 years, Gage was interviewed by police seven times and took two polygraph tests. He failed both tests, and detectives noticed inconsistencies in his story that didn’t match evidence at the scene or surveillance footage of the company’s parking lot.

During an interview with Henderson detectives earlier this year, Gage said the kidnapping didn’t happen the way he first described it — he was never tied up, gagged or blindfolded and had more than one conversation with his alleged kidnappers. Gage then said he had been withholding information about Cates’ killers.

Gage told police he was afraid. He wanted to tell the whole story but “just could not figure out how he could do that,” the warrant states. He requested police “provide a psychiatrist, have him hypnotized, or give him Sodium Pentothal to get the truth out of him.”

During his final police interview, Gage again said he had not been truthful over the years, but again stated that he didn’t know how to tell the complete story.

According to the report, Gage told Cates’ son after the shooting he thought the killers were “just going to rough (Cates) up.”

Gates will next appear in court on June 5. He is currently held without bail.

Contact Max Michor at mmichor@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0365. Follow @MaxMichor on Twitter.