Horse shooting trial to begin Nov. 1 in Carson

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A Nov. 1 trial date was set today for three young men accused of killing a wild horse in the hills near Virginia City.

First District Judge Michael Griffin set the new date one day after he ordered the trial moved to Carson City.

Former Marines Darien Brock, 22, and Scott Brendle, 23, and their high school buddy, Anthony Merlino, 21, each are charged with one gross misdemeanor of killing or maiming another person's animal.

The three once were accused of shooting at least 28 horses with high-powered rifles but are now charged in the death of only a single mustang.

Griffin ruled last month there wasn't enough evidence to support the more than two dozen initial charges. The remaining gross misdemeanor charge carries a penalty of up to one year in the county jail and a $2,000 fine.

The trial was to begin April 17 in Virginia City. But the judge ordered a change of venue Tuesday, saying media coverage of the December 1998 slaughter of 33 mustangs stacked tiny Storey County against the three defendants.

He said it should be easier to find impartial jurors in Carson City, 15 miles southwest of Virginia City, the Storey County seat.

The massacre in the hills east of Reno drew international outrage in the days after Christmas 1998.

Brock and Brendle, former Marine lance corporals, received the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge soon after their arrest in January 1999.

All three defendants admitted they had been in the same canyon during the days in question but had played a role in the death of only one horse.

Brendle said he shot one, and Merlino said when he came across one that had been shot, he put it out of its misery.

By all accounts, the horses died horrible deaths, shot multiple times, some through the heart, one between the eyes.

Several of the mustangs thrashed on the ground or wandered wounded for days before they died or were chased down and destroyed by sheriff's deputies.