Last week, a Sparks man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to six felony charges: Robbery with the use of a Deadly Weapon, two counts of First Degree Kidnapping with the Use of a Deadly Weapon, Battery with the Use of a Deadly Weapon Resulting in Substantial Bodily Harm – Victim is an Older Person, Discharging a Firearm from a Vehicle Within a Prohibited Area, and Duty to Stop at the Scene of a Crash Involving Injury.
In September of 2022, 26-year-old Moises Portillo-Perez (dob 12/11/97) approached two men who had pulled up in a car in the Legends Bay Casino parking lot, opened their driver’s side door, and stuck a gun against the 59-year-old driver’s ribs, telling him and the 38-year-old passenger to move over. To prove the gun was real, Portillo racked the slide of his gun and cycled two rounds through the chamber. Portillo then told the 59-year-old victim he was robbing them and there was nothing he could do about it.
After taking control of the car, Portillo drove through the casino parking lot before pulling over and telling the two men to help him rob the casino. When they refused, Portillo told the victims they could make $20,000 each if they shot at random vehicles throughout the city. Again, both men refused. The defendant began driving again, running over landscaping, and continuing to have his gun trained on the victim seated in the passenger seat. At one point, Portillo pointed his gun at another car in front of them and fired two gunshots through the front windshield. As they reached a roundabout, the defendant ran over a curb and signpost, causing him to drop the gun in the car. Portillo pulled over in a field, and demanded the two men help him find the gun, but instead the victims were able to throw it in some nearby bushes and escape.
Minutes later and just down the street near the Sparks Marina, Portillo pulled over and began looking through the kidnapping/robbery victim’s car. When the defendant got back into the car, he came across a 73-year-old man who was out for a morning walk. Portillo asked the man for a light, but the victim said he did not smoke and proceeded to start walking away. The defendant then drove the car directly into the tourist, causing the victim to fall on top of the hood of the car for several feet before being thrown from the hood and into the median of the street. That victim suffered skull and orbital fractures as a result. Portillo then fled the scene and was found by detectives later that day.
During sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Rachael Chesterfield argued that based on the defendant’s violent actions he had forfeited his right to be in society and a lengthy prison sentence was necessary to accurately account for the harm done to the victims and to protect the community from this defendant.
Portillo-Perez will be eligible for parole after 15 years.
