In Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas, Thursday, Judge Douglas W. Herndon set a July 27 trial date for the first three defendants charged in the January rape and home invasion robbery of adult star Cytherea.
(Left to right) Defendants Casey Franks, Edward London, and Qumaire Rainey.
Accused rapists and robbers Casey Franks, 16; Edward Lahnell London, 17; and Qumaire Jamael Rainey, 18, attended the proceeding shackled around the waist and dressed in blue jumpsuits. They were transported back to the Clark County Detention Center after the hearing, where they will remain in custody with bail set at $1 million apiece.
The three were indicted by a Clark County, Nevada grand jury on March 25, and arraigned one week ago in District Court.
Franks was indicted on 28 counts, including home invasion, sexual assault, grand larceny auto, burglary, robbery, kidnapping and impersonating an officer. Rainey was indicted on 16 counts, six of which are for sexual assault. London faces 32 counts, including robbery, larceny, conspiracy and kidnapping, but is not charged with sexual assault. They have all pleaded not guilty.
A fourth defendant allegedly connected to the crime spree, Latoine Morris, 21, was also arraigned at Thursday’s hearing, his arraignment having been delayed until he could meet with the Public Defender. Morris, who was arrested in March for robbery and grand larceny auto, was indicted on 19 counts. Morris was apparently named by one of the other defendants. He also pleaded not guilty.
According to prosecutors, Las Vegas Metro police were alerted to an apparent Martin Luther King Day crime spree with the report of a carjacking. The Indictment states that London and Morris stole a couple’s 1996 Toyota Corolla and other personal property.
On the night of Jan 19, Metro officers were dispatched to a home in a southwest Las Vegas, in response to a report of a home invasion, robbery and sexual assault. Cytherea, her husband, her two small children and their grandmother were inside the house, when a gang of five attackers kicked in the door to the home at around 10:00 p.m. The home was ransacked, the occupants held at gunpoint, and Cytherea was raped. According to the indictment, London, Franks, Rainey and two other young men, Arian Landum and Jamaal Little, both aged 17, were the home invaders.
Early the next morning, North Las Vegas police responded to a report of another home invasion. The victim, a female occupant, told police that three men kicked in the door of her an apartment on East Deer Springs Way. She confronted them with her own gun, but they claimed to be police. The men ransacked the residence, taking electronics, guns and the woman’s car.
Using the woman’s iPhone locator, they tracked the stolen car. After chasing two cars, police arrested Rainey, London and Franks.
Metro detectives, working with North Las Vegas police on this case, identified the three as suspects in the brutal home invasion at Cytherea’s residence.
Authorities report that Franks, London, and Rainey have criminal histories and knew each other from detention. Morris has an open felony drug case from earlier in January.
According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, at the same time in 2014 Rainey and London attended the “minimally secure Spring Mountain Youth Camp”, where Rainey was “a constant discipline problem.”
Before Rainey departed Spring Mountain, he committed numerous rules violations and spent almost all his spare “home” time on restrictive status. He struggled the entire time he was in placement and wasn’t a candidate for less supervision.
“This is a young man who shouldn’t have been released,” one source requesting anonymity said. “He shouldn’t have come to Spring Mountain in the first place. And he shouldn’t have gone from Spring Mountain to a group home.”
Far from improving in the motivation-based system at Spring Mountain, Franks committed a drug violation and was kicked off the school’s football team before the state championship. (At Spring Mountain, teens with improved behavior can earn weekend furloughs.)
18-year old Rainey is currently housed at Clark County Detention Center, while London and Franks are being held at the Juvenile Detention Center.
Franks, London and Rainey were initially charged in Las Vegas Justice Court, but those cases were dismissed in favor of the multi-defendant case in District Court that resulted from the grand jury indictment.
Two additional teen-aged suspects were arrested in the case in February. It is believed that these two are Landum and Little, the alleged co-conspirators who were mentioned in the indictment in relation to the home invasion but not indicted with the others.
All defendants have been charged as adults.
