LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A man accused of shooting and killing his brother, who served prison time for killing his stepfather, allegedly unloaded a barrage of bullets into a home filled with relatives and children, court documents reveal.
Marcus Montez, 34, is accused of shooting and killing Demarkie Montez, 32, in North Las Vegas in May, documents said. Police arrested Marcus Montez on a warrant in late July, records showed. It was unclear what led to the two-month delay.
On May 28 around 4:45 a.m., North Las Vegas police responded to a call for the shooting in the 1500 block of Honey Vista Lane near Martin Luther King Blvd. and Gowan Road, documents said. A witness told police Marcus Montez was at the house for a barbeque with several other family members and that he and his brother were arguing, documents said.
Demarkie Montez lived in the home with his wife and their three children, the youngest who was 2 years old at the time.
Demarkie Montez was outside of his home with his brother and a cousin, a detective testified to the grand jury. The detective said police found multiple cartridge cases and unspent bullets at the shooting scene.
“There were multiple bullet defects into the garage including a motorcycle inside the garage and to the house, on the front of the house into the window of the living room area there,” the detective said.
Several bullets went through an outside wall, entering a children’s bedroom, the detective said. One photo shown to the grand jury indicated a bullet went through a wall and landed in a toy.
A witness to the shooting told the grand jury she ducked for cover when Marcus Montez allegedly started firing, transcripts said.
“They got to the street, they were still going back and forth, Marcus Montez was on his bike, they exchanged some more words,” the witness said. “And then as I was looking out the window, Marcus said basically like, ‘Okay, you want to go there,’ pulled the gun out, it was wrapped in a black cloth, so then that’s when [Demarkie Montez] put his hands up and he started kind of walking back and he was like, ‘Oh come on bro, you’re going to shoot me,’ and that’s when he, yeah, he shot.”
The witness said they crawled to a bedroom with the child as gunshots came through the window and wall, transcripts said.
“We were low on the ground,” the witness told the grand jury. “There was bullet holes flying over me and [the 2-year-old] and in through his room.”
Marcus Montez then drove off on a motorcycle as Demarkie Montez came into the house, transcripts indicated.
“When the shooting stopped I got up, I walked into the hallway to try to make sure [Demarkie Montez] was fine and as I was walking into the hallway out of [the 2-year-old’s] room, [Demarkie Montez’s] coming through the garage door into our house and he’s holding his stomach and he says I’ve been shot, Marcus shot me, he came in, hit the corner and went into the living room and slid to the ground.”
Demarkie Montez died from a gunshot wound to the back, the Clark County coroner’s office said.
In February 2007, Marcus Montez, then 17, shot and killed Eric Bennett when he fired a rifle into Bennett’s face, documents said. Marcus Montez was Bennett’s stepson. After the murder, Marcus Montez’s attorney argued his client and his client’s mother had endured years of domestic abuse.
A judge later sentenced Marcus Montez to a maximum of 5 years in prison on a charge of voluntary manslaughter with the use of a deadly weapon, records showed.
For his latest charge, Marcus Montez remained at the Clark County Detention Center where he was being held without bail. Montez also faced three charges of child abuse and a charge of owning or possessing a gun by a prohibited person, records showed.
