CORONER’S INQUEST: Officer cleared in boy’s slaying

A rookie police officer was justified last month when he fatally shot a 16-year-old boy brandishing a toy the officer believed was a real gun, a coroner’s jury ruled Friday.

Jurors deliberated less than 30 minutes before they unanimously exonerated North Las Vegas officer Anthony Bailey, 23, for killing Billy Finks Jr. following a Feb. 27 pursuit that ended on a dead-end dirt road.

Bailey told the seven male jurors he believed the fake chrome revolver was a real firearm, and that he feared he would be killed if he didn’t shoot Finks first.

Police Department spokesman Lt. Art Redcay said Bailey, who has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting, will return to patrol duty Sunday.

"It’s not a win situation. One young man lost his life and another’s going to have to spend the rest of his life thinking about that," Redcay said. "But there had been a lot of misinformation floating out there for the last month, and this allowed us to put the truth out there and have some closure in this case."

Finks’ parents blasted the decision and said only one side of the story was presented during the daylong coroner’s inquest into their son’s slaying.

"Every time police shoot somebody, they say it’s justified," said Finks’ father, Billy Finks Sr. "Police got a license to kill. Why should they not shoot anybody they want to?"

Finks’ mother said the truth would be revealed after the family files a planned federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against the Police Department and others they say are to blame for the teen’s death.

Filling nearly two rows of the courtroom’s seats, Finks’ family reacted with sighs, rolling eyes and shaking heads to what several witnesses testified.

During Bailey’s lengthy testimony, jurors craned their necks and squinted their eyes to see the rookie officer demonstrate what circumstance led him to open fire on the teen.

Bailey was positioned about 30 feet from the jury box, about the same distance that separated him from Finks when he fired two shots at the youth. Deputy District Attorney Jim Miller then gave him the plaything recovered near the boy’s body and asked Bailey to imitate what Finks did with the weapon.

"I could see down the barrel of the gun. That’s when I feared for my life and fired two shots in self-defense," Bailey said while crouching and turning toward the jury with both hands clutching the fake gun near his waist.

He slowly raised the toy until it was almost aiming at jurors.

"I believed it was a chrome revolver. … I knew that if I waited any longer, I’d be shot and killed," Bailey said. "The last thing I’ve ever wanted to have to do in my life is take somebody else’s life."

The only other witness to the shooting, Finks’ 15-year-old friend Demario Payton, testified that Finks had his hands in the air and was not holding the gun when Bailey shot him.

But much of Payton’s testimony was incoherent and contradicted by two videotaped statements shown to the jury. On those tapes, the teen tells a police homicide investigator he believes Finks threw the toy to the ground after he was shot.

Payton testified his statement to police was coerced, but in both videos he is shown voluntarily cooperating with Detective Jesus Prieto.

Police pursuit of Finks and Payton began at 8:50 a.m. at Cheyenne High School, 3200 W. Alexander Road, when the boys were in a car Payton testified he and Western High School junior "Big" Mike Henderson stole the previous day.

Three Cheyenne students testified that a brown car being driven recklessly pulled alongside them near the school around that time. One of the two boys inside pointed a gun at them, laughed and then drove away.

Graphic designer Larrie Thomas told jurors he was riding his bicycle to work near the school that morning when two boys in a brown car nearly killed him. Thomas said he watched the car "fishtailing and doing doughnuts" on a muddy lot off Simmons Street. Thomas said when the car skidded back onto paved road, it shot across the street at his bike.

"I would’ve been run down if I wouldn’t have stood up (pedaling on the bicycle) and sped off," said Thomas, who claimed the car came within a foot of striking him before fleeing and driving into Cheyenne’s parking lot. Thomas said he saw a chrome gun in one of the driver’s hands.

Thomas memorized the car’s license plate information, passed it onto Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Clark County School District police at the school and pointed the car out to an officer.

North Las Vegas police officer Mark Hoyt testified that he approached the car to speak with the youths, but the boys sped away and almost struck another vehicle. Hoyt determined the car was stolen after checking a police "hot sheet" of license plates and broadcast on his police radio a description of the car and its direction.

Bailey spotted the car while patrolling at Decatur Boulevard and Alexander. He didn’t pull the boys over because he was alone, and department policy mandates that felony suspects cannot be stopped by a single officer without backup.

He followed the car south to Roberta Lane, just west of the North Las Vegas Airport. He was forced to confront Finks and Payton without backup shortly afterward because Roberta dead ends at a mound of dirt and concrete.

Bailey testified that he pulled up behind the car, took cover behind his patrol cruiser door and drew his firearm, a standard police procedure when conducting a felony car stop unaccompanied.

The officer said he shouted commands at Finks and Payton to stay in the car, but neither complied.

When Finks got out of the car, Bailey said he saw the gun and commanded the boy to drop the weapon twice before he fired his .40- caliber sidearm.

Bailey testified that after he fired two shots — one of which struck Finks in the chest and pierced his aorta and a lung — Finks dropped the gun. "He (Finks) said something to the effect that it was a toy gun," Bailey said.