Jury acquits man of murder in fatal Las Vegas shooting

Jurors deliberated two hours before finding a 39-year-old man not guilty of fatally shooting two people last year at an east Las Vegas apartment complex.

“I can’t remember the last double homicide acquittal, to tell you the truth,” Ozzie Fumo, one of the defense attorneys representing Michael Ellis, said about the Thursday decision.

Prosecutors only had one witness who identified Ellis during the trial, according to Fumo and co-counsel Thomas Pitaro. The shooting broke out in a crowd of people on Jan. 8, 2021, at the Harbor Island Apartments, 370 E. Harmon Ave.

The shooting stemmed from an argument involving Sean McLemore, 32, who refused to leave the complex after buying alcohol from an apartment where a tenant was operating a store. McLemore was intoxicated, and multiple people were trying to get him to leave, Pitaro said.

“A big crowd comes up, and he gets belligerent on people, pushing and shoving, and then all of a sudden shots rang out,” the attorney said.

McLemore and Antwan Pope Jr., 30, were killed in the shooting. Both deaths were ruled homicides by the Clark County coroner’s office.

Prosecutor Ronald Evans declined to comment on the acquittal on Monday. Prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Metropolitan Police Department detectives named Ellis a suspect based on tips they received, according to Ellis’ arrest report. A friend of McLemore’s told police that McLemore owed Ellis “drugs and money” and that the men had gotten into a fight days before the shooting, the report said.

Video surveillance showed Ellis on the property an hour before the shooting and then driving away in a car with another man, according to court records.

Towan Abram, who witnessed the shooting, testified during a preliminary hearing last year that he saw a man he identified as Ellis fire eight or nine shots from about 80 to 100 feet away, according to court transcripts. It was “fairly dark” when the shooting happened, and Abram said he did not see the gun muzzle flash and “wasn’t paying attention” to the clothes the shooter was wearing.

Although Abram testified that the gun was a black semiautomatic handgun, when he first talked to police he said he did not see the weapon, court records show.

Abram was arrested on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Feb. 1, two weeks before Ellis’ trial began, according to court records.

On Wednesday, he entered into a guilty plea agreement in a separate case for a felony count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell. As part of the agreement, the stolen vehicle case is set to be dismissed, court records show.

Pitaro said Ellis had maintained his innocence throughout the court proceedings, although he lied to police early in the case, saying he was not at the complex when the shooting happened.

“He said he did that because obviously, he didn’t want to deal with the police,” the attorney said. “He thought he shouldn’t be there and was going to go to jail over that.”

Fumo said other witnesses the defense attorneys interviewed did not believe Ellis was the shooter, but they refused to testify during the trial.

It was not immediately clear if Metro homicide detectives are still investigating the shooting.

Ellis remains in custody on a felony count of ownership or possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in a separate case, according to court records. A jury trial for that charge is scheduled for March 14.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.