Robbery suspect off medication
Deonta Scott, 14, shuffles into court, shackles binding his hands and feet. His eyes are dull, his body wracked by twitches that jerk his head to the left.
His mother tells the court that her middle child hasn’t taken his prescribed medication for more than two years.
Police have described Scott and two cohorts as “rabid dogs” for their alleged conduct in a recent string of violent robberies in the southwest valley that included the pistol-whipping of a 76-year-old man. But on Wednesday morning, Scott behaves like a frightened, sick boy.
The Family Court hearing master appears to be more shocked by the teen’s physical condition than by the crimes of which he stands accused, including robbery with a deadly weapon.
“He needs to be treated by a doctor immediately,” says Stephen Compan, the juvenile hearing master.
He then chastises Scott’s mother for not providing her son with any medication since April 2005.
“How dare you?” he asks her. “I almost want to put you in jail.”
But at the end of the hearing, it is Scott who is returned to jail. He will sit behind bars for more than three weeks. In mid-July a juvenile court judge will determine if he should be treated as an adult or as a juvenile by the court system.
If he is tried as an adult and found guilty, he could spend decades behind bars.
The decision is aimed at getting to the heart of Deonta Scott. Is he a cold, calculating leader of a criminal clique responsible for as many as 50 sophisticated robberies? Or a mentally disturbed child who wanted only to impress his older friends? There is evidence to support each view.
VIOLENT CLIQUES
Police arrested Scott, 19-year-old Keshone Owens and a 17-year-old on June 12 and accused them of committing three armed robberies in less than two hours, two near Flamingo Road and Buffalo Drive, one near Jones Boulevard and Robindale Road. Las Vegas police Sgt. Jim Young said the three are part of a much larger group of high school-age youths who have been terrorizing the southwest valley.
He estimated the group of 20 to 30 youths are responsible for at least 50 sophisticated robberies over about six months.
The group of youths would use stolen vehicles and plan escape routes. They knew how long it would take police to get to a crime scene and had the sense to ditch their weapons when police arrested them, he said.
These youths, including Scott, are members of “hybrid gangs” known as cliques, he said. The cliques go by the names M.O.S., Murder One Squad, and M.O.B., Money Over Bitches or Murder on the (or da) Block. The cliques often are organized by teens who live in the same neighborhoods or who attend the same high schools.
Unlike traditional street gangs organized along racial and class lines, hybrid gangs might include a mix of black, Hispanic, white and Asian members who live in the same government-subsidized housing projects or gated communities.
“We’ve seen a lot of these nontraditional gangs pop up,” said Lt. Christopher Darcy of the Metropolitan Police Department’s gang unit.
He said the hybrid gangs often evolve quickly, so that by next year, the Money Over Bitches clique might have a new name and members.
Money Over Bitches, a refrain from a Tupac Shakur song called M.O.B., is such a popular moniker that it’s used by cliques at various schools including Sierra Vista, Durango and Cheyenne high schools.
In a recent case, an 18-year-old former Mojave High School student and member of Money Over Bitches, Charles Washington, was gunned down outside a house party in North Las Vegas.
Kevin Williams, a 17-year-old friend of Washington’s, said Washington wasn’t involved in any robberies or other criminal activity.
“It’s not a gang,” he said of the clique. “It’s like what some people would call a fraternity.”
Police don’t say that all cliques are involved in criminal activity. They contend, however, that Scott’s clique wasn’t just a group of friends. What’s more, they say, Scott, Owens and the 17-year-old in custody were leaders in the criminal group.
“I believe they were major players,” Young said.
TROUBLED TEEN
The police portrait of Scott clashes with that given by his mother, who said he is a mentally disturbed youth with no connections to Money Over Bitches or gang activity.
“He doesn’t understand what’s going on,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.
She said he still wets his bed and that his six siblings treat him like an infant.
Scott was previously taking Zyprexa and Seroquel, she said, two drugs that according to their manufacturers are used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
But Scott stopped taking his prescriptions when the family moved to Las Vegas from Lancaster, Calif., because his mother couldn’t access any mental health services for him, she said. Her son had been unable to receive counseling or medications through the school system, she complained.
The woman said many of Scott’s problems stem from teasing and bullying at Sierra Vista because of his learning disabilities.
The school district recently transferred him from Sierra Vista High School to Southwest Behavior Junior/Senior High School, an alternative school for students with behavioral problems.
Students generally attend Southwest Behavior for four to nine weeks and are then returned to their regular schools, said Edward Goldman, associate superintendent of the Education Services Division at the Clark County School District.
Goldman wouldn’t discuss Scott’s case, including why he was sent to Southwest Behavior, citing privacy rules. He said, however, that students with identified learning disabilities are eligible for counseling.
Scott’s mother said he is impressionable. According to a Las Vegas police report and sources close to the investigation, he told police he robbed two women during the crime spree “because he wanted to be like his cousin (Keshone) Owens.”
Young said Scott and Owens aren’t related by blood but might have identified each other by the term “cousin.”
Scott’s mother believes her son might have been set up by some older boys.
One person Scott’s mother didn’t blame was herself. Describing herself as a caring single mother struggling to raise seven children ages 6 to 18, she said she moved to Las Vegas to give her family more opportunities in a safe community.
But her version of the family’s life didn’t sit well with Compan during last week’s hearing when he saw Scott trembling and jerking. He requested that authorities begin investigating the family.
“I’m a good mother,” Scott’s mother said after the hearing.
She has spoken to her son once by telephone since his arrest. He didn’t appear to understand where he was or what was going on.
“He said, ‘Mom, when is this dream going to be over?'” she said.
As fragile as Scott appeared in Family Court, Rachael Liga described a more vicious side.
Liga and her neighbor were talking and smoking in Liga’s garage in southwest Las Vegas on June 12 when Scott entered the garage and snatched her purse, according to Liga and police.
The 14-year-old didn’t appear to have any mental problems, Liga said. He wasn’t twitching uncontrollably. In fact, she said, he appeared to know exactly what he was doing.
Liga, who at first thought Scott was joking, approached him to retrieve her purse.
“He told me to, ‘Back off, bitch.’ He said, ‘Go back to your (expletive) cigarette,'” she recalled Scott saying as he pointed a gun at her.
She added, “The only mental problem he had was a bad attitude.”
