Killen arrested on suspicion of mail tampering

David Scott Killen, set for sentencing on a two-county shooting spree, was arrested in Carson City on Sunday with two others on suspicion of rifling mail boxes for gift cards and credit card offers.

Assistant Carson City District Attorney Gerald Gardner said Killen was being held in jail on $50,000 bail, charged with one count of tampering with mail. He is set for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 21.

The arrests came one day before Killen's original sentencing date in Douglas County on a charge of willful destruction of property.

Last week, the Douglas sentencing was changed from Dec. 10 to Jan. 28 to allow Killen time to earn more money for restitution and to give the state Parole and Probation Department time to prepare a presentence report.

Gardner said Tuesday that although Killen is presumed innocent on the mail tampering, the charge is a felony.

"If he is convicted of the mail-tampering charge, it probably would affect his sentencing on the destruction of property case," Gardner said.

According to the Carson City Sheriff's Department, three Carson City men were arrested around 5:30 a.m. Sunday in the 100 block of Cogorno Way on suspicion of taking and opening mail.

The three allegedly were taking mail out of mail boxes looking for holiday cards and credit card offers.

Deputies said the car they were driving allegedly had a stack of other people's opened and unopened letters.

On Feb. 12, he shot out windows in cars and businesses in Douglas County and Carson City before he was pulled over in the Gardnerville Ranchos after he shot at a vehicle driven by Stephanie Carney at the intersection of Riverview and Dresslerville.

Carney and her teenage daughter were unhurt, and she was able to identify Killen as the shooter.

Killen pleaded guilty in Douglas County in October to the willful destruction charge. He faces up to one year in Douglas County Jail and a $2,000 fine.

He was released from prison in August 2005 after serving a sentence for felony arson.

When he was a juvenile, he and his brother admitted setting a neighbor's law on fire.