Slaying suspect: ‘I had nothing to do with it’
Brandon Hill spoke softly, wondering aloud Wednesday why he was spending his 23rd birthday at the county jail accused of a fatal shooting he says he didn’t commit.
Las Vegas police, who on Monday recommended that Hill be charged with murder, allege he is the gunman who killed Michael Alano Portaro, 22, outside a northwest valley brew pub March 30.
Speaking over a video link at the Clark County Detention Center, Hill, who has been in and out of jail the past few years, said he’s not the shooter.
“I feel sorry for the family because he (Michael Portaro) was so young and lost his life to violence,” Hill said. “I had nothing to do with it. I am innocent of these crimes I’ve been accused of.”
Police said they have strong evidence that ties Hill to Portaro’s slaying: a cigarette found outside the bar that contains Hill’s DNA, the gun used in the slaying that was recovered near Hill during an April arrest and forensic evidence found inside Portaro’s car, which was stolen the night he was killed.
Hill said he couldn’t recall where he was the night of Portaro’s slaying because it was nearly three months ago.
Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said that despite Hill’s claims to the contrary, he’s the man responsible for Portaro’s death.
“We are confident we’ve got our guy,” Roberts said.
He said homicide detectives requested an interview with Hill after the positive DNA test and before he was charged, but Hill declined the request.
“He didn’t want anything to do with us,” he said.
Roberts also said Hill is being investigated for other crimes, but he declined to elaborate.
Police have not released Hill’s booking mug shot because they don’t want to compromise other open cases, they said. They also requested that no photographs be taken of Hill during Wednesday’s interview.
Portaro was shot about 11:30 p.m. March 30 outside the Tenaya Creek Brewery at 3101 N. Tenaya Way. Portaro, a 2006 graduate of Faith Lutheran Junior/Senior High School, was at the bar’s parking lot selling tickets to a show at Daddy Mac’s restaurant in Henderson, where his hip-hop group, Ekoh, was to perform.
Police recovered inconclusive surveillance video from the brew pub’s parking lot that appeared to show a young man wearing a hooded sweat shirt and white shoes and smoking a cigarette.
Hill, wearing a dark blue county jail jumpsuit Wednesday, said he never met Portaro and has never been to the Tenaya Creek Brewery. He also said that he was never inside Portaro’s car and that he’s baffled as to why police claim to have so much evidence against him.
“The forensic stuff, I don’t even believe that,” Hill said. “I believe it’s because of the gun alone.”
Hill said he was arrested in April after he fled from police because he had a warrant out for his arrest for unpaid traffic tickets. He said that during a sweep of the area, police found a gun, which he said Wednesday didn’t belong to him.
According to police records, Hill was arrested at 12:49 a.m. April 10 on the 6800 block of West Alexander Road for carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a firearm.
Hill’s arrest report released Wednesday said police recovered a stainless steel Smith & Wesson .357 magnum revolver. It was found near Hill during his arrest.
The report said Hill told police he had bought the gun two days before from a Mexican man in the area of Cheyenne Avenue and Fort Apache Road.
Ballistics testing determined that bullets recovered from Portaro’s body had been fired by the recovered gun.
The report also said a partially smoked cigarette was found under Portaro’s left leg. It contained Hill’s DNA, the report said.
Hill has had multiple brushes with the law.
On May 19, Hill said, a SWAT team took him into custody at his mother’s home in the northwest valley.
According to the report, homicide detectives and SWAT got a warrant to search the home and get Hill’s DNA. Hill was arrested on probable cause for a March 26 robbery with a deadly weapon and grand larceny auto.
During the search of the mother’s home, police recovered clothing that matched the suspect’s clothing from the Tenaya Creek surveillance video. Blood found on Adidas shoes taken from the home matched Portaro’s DNA, police said.
Police records said Hill repeatedly denied being involved in Portaro’s slaying.
Hill’s account of how he got the gun also changed during interviews with police. Although he first claimed to have bought the gun in the area of Cheyenne Avenue and Fort Apache Road, he later said he bought it from a man named Sergio at an apartment complex at Alexander Road and Tenaya Way.
Hill, who has a 3-year-old son, acknowledged that in 2008 and 2010 he was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon. He served about a year in county jail for each offense, he said.
Hill said he grew up in a rough part of Las Vegas and went to Cheyenne High School but “unfortunately” never graduated. Hill said he worked from his home cutting hair and was enrolled in culinary arts school before he was arrested.
He said he knows that his criminal history is not helping him clear his name in Portaro’s slaying. He also said he is innocent of an unrelated grand larceny charge.
Hill wants police, the Portaro family and the public to know that his checkered past doesn’t mean he killed Portaro.
“My past is my past,” added Hill, who said an attorney had not yet been appointed for him. “I hope they do find the person responsible so me and my family can move on with our lives.”
Review-Journal writer Mike Blasky contributed to this report. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
