Smirking Vegas thieves blame police for crash that killed 101-year-old WWII veteran as theyre sentenced to prison
A pair of smirking thieves blamed alleged police brutality for a high-speed chase that killed a 101-year-old World War II veteran in Las Vegas.Lorraine Alvarado, 34, and Kassandra Alvarez, 32, deflected responsibility for Army veteran Herbert Muskin’s 2023 death during a court trial where they were sentenced to 14-40 years and 10-30 years in prison, respectively.“I would like to say that it was the tactics and the brutal, excessive force that the officers used that spiraled the situation out of control,” Alvardo said in court before her sentencing on Wednesday.“A lot of things could have been prevented that night if the high-speed chase would have been called off,” she added.The two women robbed a Las Vegas sporting goods store at gunpoint near the intersection of Sahara Avenue and Decatur Boulevard, before carjacking a vehicle and fleeing the area and from police.Alvarez, who was driving the car, drove over 17 miles from the store and was going 80 mph when she crashed into Muskin’s vehicle that had been stopped at a red light at the intersection of Sunset Road and Stephanie Street in Henderson.Alvarado jumped out of the car and attempted to flee the scene before she fell to the ground and pointed a gun at the chasing officers, who fired 16 shots at her, according to bodycam footage obtained by Fox5 Vegas.The then-31-year-old was struck by the gunfire and hospitalized.Muskin, who was with his wife returning home from a trip to Costco, was rushed to a hospital, where he died weeks later from aspiration pneumonia.
Doctors ruled his death was the result of the blunt force injuries he sustained in the crash.After Muskin’s death, both Alvarez and Alvarado were indicted on murder charges.Attorneys for the women argued in court that an autopsy should have been performed after Muskin’s death certificate listed global geriatric decline as a significant condition to his death.Judge Michelle Leavitt did not dismiss the murder charges after hearing the defendan...