Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani has revealed in a hearing that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dandre Owens, who is accused of killing a woman with whom he had sex at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino before fatally gunning down a man he lured into the desert.
murder, kidnapping, and robbery
For the killings that both took place in January 2024, the court indicted Owens on counts including murder, kidnapping, and robbery.
According to a previous statement from Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck, Owens allegedly took 29-year-old Brittani Bailey to the Las Vegas Strip hotel to have sex before shooting her in the back of the head.
DA Fleck added at last month’s grand jury hearing that Owens lured his other victim, Edward Kukish, to the desert on the pretense of a clean-up project.
“Once he got him out to the desert, he shot him two times in the head, took his cell phone and then he abandoned the body,” Fleck said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The DA said Kukish’s body wasn’t discovered “until August of 2024.”
Owens has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Lethal injection remains the only legal form of death penalty in Nevada. There have been no executions in the state since 2006, reportedly because of difficulties in procuring the required drugs.
