Trailer Park Witness

Witness Statement: Sheila Penn

Ms. Penn has been a resident of the Shady Acres Trailer Park in North Las Vegas since 1995. She works as a cocktail waitress at Mahoney's Silver Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas.

The following is the transcript of a verbal witness statement made by Ms. Penn, which was recorded on audio cassette at the North Las Vegas Police Station.

It was Friday afternoon, oh, I guess around 3:30 or something. I usually wake up around noon, wash up, have breakfast, and then maybe start thinking about doing chores or something. That's what I was doing, I was outside hanging up stuff I'd just done cleaned at the laundry mat, when Vicky - I knew her as Vicky, I met her when they moved in like a week ago. Maybe a week ago Wednesday. They said they were friends of the manager, that's Mike, and they were staying in the Jepson's trailer. The Jepsons just kind of left a couple of months ago. Anyhow I met Vicky and Ed. They seemed nice but they were tired, I could tell. They kept to themselves. Once I saw Vicky coming back from the 7-11 with some food, and we said "hi." She seemed perfectly nice, we chatted for a minute. She said they had been traveling a lot and just wanted some peace and quiet.

Anyway, Vicky came running up to me, all crying and everything. I asked her what was wrong and she said she wanted to go home and could she use my phone? I knew they didn't have a phone, they were living pretty simple in the Jepson's old place, so I said sure and I let her in. I asked her if she wanted some coffee or something, and she said no. She said she just wanted to go home and she just couldn't take it any more. She didn't really seem to want to talk about it - I'd sort of sat her down at the table with me, thinking maybe she just needed a good cry, you know, sometimes you just need a good cry. But she didn't say much, just asked again if she could use the phone, so I said sure and let her at it.

I'll be [expletive deleted] if she didn't go and dial the police. She dialed 911 and said she wanted to turn herself in. I thought she must've been crazy or something, because as far as I know she hadn't done nothing wrong, I mean sure a girl like her could get into a lot of trouble, but she just didn't seem the type. She was tough, but she was scared too, I could tell that. Anyhow, when she hung up I asked her what this was all about, and she laughed, she was crying too but she laughed. She kept saying "what this is all about," and laughing. Then she began yelling at me, she yelled, "Don't you know I'm WANTED?" and then she did that kind of in between laughing and crying again and right after that she just left. Ran back to her trailer without thanking me or anything.

I went back to hanging up the clothes. I was kind of keeping an eye out too. In a few minutes something like three cars pulled up with lights on and everything. I couldn't imagine that she could be in that much trouble.

Signed,

Sheila Penn