Crime Corner

COURTS: Man pleads no contest to attempted child sex assault

A man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl over a period of six years pleaded no contest this week to a single charge of attempted sexual assault of a child under 14.

Samuel King, 73, appeared in District Court Monday morning to be arraigned after accepting a plea deal in the case. He was originally charged on Jan. 3 with two counts of lewdness with a child under 14, a category A felony. Per his negotiations with the state, those two charges were dropped down to a single count of attempted sexual assault of a child, a category B felony, after he agreed to plead no contest.

The charge is reportedly a non-probationable offense, and King is facing anywhere from two to 20 years in prison at the time of sentencing.

As of Thursday King remained in custody at the Nye County Detention Center. He is scheduled to be back in court on June 23 for sentencing.

COPS: Woman arrested for heroin possession

Police took one woman into custody last week after she was allegedly found in possession of nearly one-and-a-half grams of heroin following a traffic stop near the intersection of Charleston Park Avenue and Barney Street.

According to a declaration of arrest in the case, on March 5 a Nye County Sheriff’s detective conducted a traffic stop with a vehicle at the intersection after it failed to come to a complete stop at the stop sign.

When he made contact with the three occupants of the vehicle, he identified a woman sitting in the backseat as Shari Lewis. Her arrest report noted police had received information prior to the traffic stop that Lewis was allegedly in possession of heroin.

Although police did not find any illegal substances on her person during their initial search at the scene, officers did allegedly find two baggies of a dark brown substance, believed to be heroin, on the floorboard where Lewis had been sitting. The baggies were said to weigh approximately 0.3 grams and 0.09 grams each.

Officers also allegedly found $124 in Lewis’s back pocket and another $280 and a scale were discovered inside a billfold lying in the backseat as well.

Lewis was then placed under arrest and transported to the Nye County Detention Center to be booked into custody.

At the jail, an additional baggie of suspected heroin was allegedly discovered in Lewis’s shirt. That bag allegedly weighed 1.1 grams when measured.

Lewis was then booked into custody on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a schedule one controlled substance (heroin), possession of a schedule one controlled substance with intent to sell and no seat belt.