Ammar Harris Case: Jury Wants Death Penalty For Las Vegas Strip Shooter

A jury decided Wednesday that Ammar Asim Faruq Harris should be sentenced to death for the killing of three people by opening fire into a moving vehicle that resulted in a five-car crash and the explosion of a taxi cab on the Las Vegas Strip in 2013. Harris was not present in the courtroom when the verdict was given out.

Defense attorney Robert Langford reportedly said that the sentencing will be appealed at the Nevada Supreme Court. A formal sentencing is set for Jan. 4, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The jury, which comprised of eight women and four men, had found Harris guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapon charges after a week of testimony last month.

"It's a long process between now and his execution," Langford said, according to AP. "Death penalty cases always get the strictest scrutiny, and I've seen cleaner death penalty cases overturned."

Prosecutors said that Harris pulled alongside Kenneth Cherry Jr.'s car on the Las Vegas Strip on Feb. 21, 2013, and fired a bullet that plowed through the 27-year-old's vital organs, killing him. Cherry's Maserati then slammed into a taxi, causing an explosion that killed driver Michael Boldon, 62, and his passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48.

“The conduct of Ammar Harris was reckless and callous and unthinking toward any other people," prosecutor Pamela Weckerly reportedly told jurors.

Harris is currently housed at Ely State Prison where he is serving 16 years to life for raping and robbing an 18-year-old woman in Las Vegas in 2010. The case is also reportedly being appealed at the state Supreme Court.