Bail for suspect in Portaro slaying set at $1 million
Bail was set at more than $1 million Thursday for the man accused of killing Michael Portaro outside a local brew pub in March.
Brandon J. Hill was detained on $1 million for the murder charge and $30,000 each on charges of robbery and grand theft auto.
Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Janiece Marshall set a preliminary hearing for July 8.
A hearing for Hill on a concealed-weapons charge, which was scheduled to take place Thursday, was postponed until September.
Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas and Hill’s attorney, Public Defender Joseph Abood, declined comment.
Hill was charged with murder earlier this week after Las Vegas police obtained a positive DNA test that linked him to the March 30 shooting outside of the Tenaya Creek Brewery in northwest Las Vegas.
He had been detained at the Clark County jail since May 19 on an unrelated robbery charge.
Police said a cigarette with Hill’s DNA was found under Portaro’s body at the scene of the shooting. And police said there was forensic evidence linking Hill to Portaro’s vehicle, which was stolen after the slaying and later recovered.
Police also said they recovered the gun used in the slaying after Hill was arrested on a concealed-weapons charge April 10.
Hill has proclaimed his innocence. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that his DNA could not have been at the crime scene but gave no alibi for his whereabouts the night of the shooting.
Portaro, a 2006 graduate of Faith Lutheran high school, was at the pub’s parking lot selling tickets to a show at Daddy Mac’s restaurant in Henderson, where his hip-hop group, Ekoh, was to play.
Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@review journal.com or 702-383-0283.
