From the Las Vegas Review Journal:
Prosecutors withdrew the death penalty Monday for a man convicted of fatally shooting of Mike Portaro, 22, outside a tavern in the northwest valley after Portaro’s mother said she did not want to see another death.
Brandon Hill was convicted last week in the March 2011 slaying 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.
On Monday, Cynthia Portaro approached prosecutors, who were seeking capital punishment from a jury, and said she did not want to see Hill sentenced to death. In turn, a judge is expected to decide Hill’s fate, and prosecutors said they plan to ask for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“I personally didn’t want to see another person die,” Portaro said afterward and then hugged members of Hill’s family.
Hill had apologized to the victim’s family in court after the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, robbery with use of a deadly weapon and grand larceny auto.
“I got what I wanted — an apology from Brandon,” Cynthia Portaro said. “I felt a sense of relief that there is no hatred, animosity, anger. Because if you live in Christ, you cannot live with those things.”
Read the full story HERE.
