Couple accused in crossing guard attack to face jury
A Las Vegas judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors had enough evidence against a couple accused in an attack on a 64-year-old school crossing guard to take the case to a jury.
Adam Kondrat and Sabrina Torres will face seven charges at trial, including conspiracy to commit battery, battery with substantial bodily harm and mayhem.
Kondrat was driving about 50 mph and cutting off other vehicles in a school zone in October near Gehring Elementary School, at Maryland Parkway near Silverado Ranch Boulevard, when a crossing guard forced him to stop, according to his arrest report. There were two girls in the crosswalk.
Kondrat, 21, got out of his car and attacked the guard, Dano McKay, kicking and punching him until he fell to the ground and dropped his stop sign, a witness told police.
Kondrat’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Sabrina J. Torres, then picked up the stop sign and handed it to Kondrat, witnesses told police. Kondrat appeared ready to strike McKay with the sign when a retired police sergeant intervened, authorities said.
On Wednesday, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Conrad Hafen dismissed two of 11 charges against the two defendants: assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a protected person. The latter charge was related to a railroad officer who came to McKay’s rescue.
Hafen will decide on two misdemeanor battery charges.
Prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci tried to argue that the stop sign that McKay used was a deadly weapon.
But the judge pointed to McKay’s testimony last month when he said Kondrat dropped the sign, realizing that it was “too light to do any real damage.”
Carmine Colucci, who represents Torres, had argued that there was no conspiracy and asked the judge to dismiss six of the 11 charges.
Before encountering McKay, Kondrat sped past another crossing guard who tried to get him to slow down, Pesci said.
Robert Gibbs, a railroad police officer, was on his motorcycle driving to his daughter’s high school when he saw Kondrat get out of his car, walk up to McKay and punch him in the face, authorities said.
Kondrat was on top of the crossing guard, punching him repeatedly, when the 55-year-old Gibbs approached and tried to stop Kondrat, authorities said, and Torres then jumped on Gibbs’ back to pull him away from her boyfriend.
That’s when Kondrat used his finger to “fishhook” the side of Gibbs’ face, ripping the corner of his mouth, Pesci said.
McKay suffered seven “lumps” on his head and road rash on his legs, he testified.
After the hearing, Kondrat’s attorney, Martin Hart, said he wants to sit down with prosecutors to “find an appropriate resolution” to the case.
“He’s not the demon he’s portrayed to be,” Hart said. “He’s a young kid.”
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