Man pleads guilty to fatal shooting near downtown Las Vegas high school
A 44-year-old man plead guilty on Tuesday to fatally shooting his roommate late last year.
Major Sanford was accused of using a stolen gun to kill his roommate, 46-year-old Shannon Awa, and then shoot toward a group of students on Nov. 9 outside the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, near Bridger Avenue and Ninth Street in downtown Las Vegas. During a brief court hearing on Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon.
“That’s what you want to do today?” District Judge Michele Leavitt asked.
“Yeah,” said Sanford, who spoke quietly throughout the hearing.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner said Sanford could face up to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years, but that prosecutors do not intend to pursue a sentence of life in prison without parole.
According to transcripts of a January grand jury hearing, Sanford approached his neighbor inside their apartment complex on Nov. 3 and took his neighbor’s gun. The neighbor, Da’Jionn Stewart, testified that he was standing outside with his friends, including a young child, when Sanford approached him and grabbed his gun from Stewart’s pocket.
During the struggle the gun went off, shooting Stewart in the thigh, according to the transcripts.
Six days later, Sanford shot and killed Awa inside their apartment the morning of Nov. 9.
During police questioning, Sanford referred to his roommate as an “alien” and said the shooting happened when Awa tried to steal Sanford’s gun and marijuana, according to police.
Two students at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts testified that they were sitting inside a car, waiting for school to start, when they heard gunfire. They saw a man standing outside an apartment firing toward the school, according to court transcripts.
One of the bullets struck the car the teenagers were in. Three bullets also struck the school’s theater building, police said at the time of the shooting.
A sentencing hearing for Sanford is scheduled for Sept. 18.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.