Destruction delayed for weapons used in Las Vegas mass shooting

More than two years after the Route 91 Harvest festival attack, the weapons used to inflict the mass shooting remain in legal limbo.

A hearing Thursday to approve their destruction was again delayed — this time until July. That’s because the more than 4,500 claimants who stand to collect damages from the massive, recently announced MGM settlement stemming from the massacre have not all had the chance to opt in to the agreement.

“Everybody wants the guns destroyed,” said Robert Eglet, the Las Vegas attorney leading the coalition of lawyers representing those claimants. “But we can’t have the guns destroyed — because they’re evidence in the case — until the case, all the cases involved, are resolved.”

Should too few people decide to opt in to the settlement, the agreement could fall apart. That’s because a confidential threshold of claimants who choose to opt in must be met before the settlement is considered successful and claimants can begin receiving checks.

If the settlement fails and a trial moves forward, the guns would be considered a critical piece of evidence, which is why Eglet still wants them preserved.

The guns are currently in FBI custody, where they will remain unless a destruction order is approved. They are considered part of the gunman’s estate, which his mother inherited after the Oct. 1, 2017, attack, which left 58 dead and hundreds more injured.

But Paddock’s mother wanted nothing to do with her son’s money. Instead, she transferred the rights to his estate to the estates of the 58 victims.

A 59th shooting victim died last week in California, but officials have not updated the death toll of the massacre. If the death toll changes, it is unclear whether that woman’s family stands to benefit from the estate.

Alice Denton, the attorney handling the gunman’s probate case, first proposed destroying the weapons last year. But there was a moral dilemma — the weapons and other firearm accessories were worth at least $62,000. Should they be destroyed and their value forfeited, or should they be sold, collecting money for the victims’ families but allowing them to once again circulate or kill?

The dilemma made national headlines in January. That’s when an anonymous California donor stepped in to offer a donation of $62,500 to cover their cost on the condition that the weapons be destroyed.

Taken aback by the gesture, Denton planned to move forward with a petition to destroy them. That’s when Eglet intervened.

After court Thursday, Denton said that despite the delay, the destruction order seems to be a sure bet.

“If that tentative settlement goes as projected,” Denton said, “then they will simply withdraw their motion and allow my motion for destruction of the guns to go without opposition.”

Before scheduling a follow-up hearing for July 9, Clark County District Judge Gloria Sturman, who is overseeing the probate case, said Thursday, “We’ll let this process run its course.”

The most recent tally of the gunman’s worth topped $1.3 million, according to court records filed last fall. That included the estimated value of the weapons and accessories collected from Paddock’s homes and Mandalay Bay suite at the time of his death by suicide.

All of that money stands to go to the victims’ families once the case — including the weapons issue — is resolved.

A similar request to preserve the gunman’s weapons was filed in another lingering case from the massacre, in which claimants are seeking damages from Slide Fire Solutions, the manufacturer of the bump stocks — accessories that replicate automatic fire — that Paddock used during the attack.

Eglet is also counsel on that case.

“We’ll know more about where we are on that case when this July hearing comes back around,” he said after the brief court hearing.

When the settlement with MGM Resorts International was announced in early October, Eglet at the time estimated that claimants could begin receiving funds around the end of 2020. The settlement will amount to between $735 million and $800 million.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.