Son of Las Vegas shooter arrested in Tennessee after allegedly making death threats

Son of Las Vegas gunman arrested in Tennessee

WASHINGTON — The son of a man who was killed when he opened fire at a Las Vegas courthouse has been taken into custody in Tennessee after making numerous death threats, the U.S. Marshals Service said Thursday.

The chief spokesman for the law enforcement agency corrected his earlier statement that Richard Earl Nelson also had threatened to blow up the federal building in Memphis.

The initial report as to the extent of the threats was incorrect because of an internal miscommunication at the agency, said Jeff Carter, the chief spokesman for the Marshals Service.

Deputy marshals took Nelson into custody Wednesday night in western Tennessee.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Nelson because of the alleged threats and a violation of his probation in another case, Carter said.

The Marshals Service issued a statement saying Nelson had made numerous death threats to his supervising pretrial officer and stated that he would kill others in order to get his point across.

Carter said Nelson is the son of Johnny Lee Wicks, the 66-year-old ex-convict killed in a gun battle in the federal building in downtown Las Vegas earlier this month.

Nelson, 37, was awaiting trial on federal weapons violations, marshals said in a news release.

According to a petition filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Memphis, a pretrial services officer said Nelson “has displayed anger in contacts with his supervising officer by phone, in person and by voice message. In telephone contact with his officer on Jan. 27, (Nelson) advised that if he wanted to go out and kill someone right now, that he could and that electronic monitoring could not stop him.

“During this contact, the defendant further stated that he was going to make his attitude worse and that ‘maybe that would get people’s attention.’”

Nelson, who has legally changed his name to “Sir Richard,” was sentenced to 18 years for attempted first-degree murder in 1992 following a 1991 sentence of two years for attempted aggravated assault.

While behind bars in about six different prisons in Tennessee, he had 40 disciplinary issues going back to 1993, including assault, possession of a deadly weapon, assault of staff and possession of gang material.

His sentence expired Jan. 17, 2006.

In the Las Vegas shootout, Wicks mortally wounded a courthouse security guard and wounded a deputy U.S. marshal.

Wicks, originally from Memphis, had served prison time for killing his brother in Tennessee and jail time for domestic violence in California.

On Jan. 4, Wicks returned to the courthouse where his lawsuit over his Social Security benefits had been dismissed in September. He had claimed racial discrimination after his Social Security benefits were cut.

Authorities said Wicks set fire to his Las Vegas apartment before walking three miles to the federal building, pulling a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun from beneath his black trench coat and opening fire.

Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS what threats were made, with official now saying federal building in Memphis was not threatened.)