During a hearing earlier this week, two teenagers from Las Vegas stood accused of killing a retired police chief, who was bicycling at the time, by running him over with a vehicle. The teens allegedly laughed and grinned at each other in court, clearly flipping off the victim's family.
More than two months after Jesus Ayala, 18, and Jzamir Keys, 16, allegedly videotaped their crime purposefully slamming into Andreas Probst, 64, they were back in court on Tuesday, October 24.
'No Remorse'
Ayala and Keys, who were juveniles at the time of Probst's death, have been charged with murder and are now standing trial as adults.
When they sat down in Clark County court for the hearing, the disrespectful acts started. They covered the right side of their faces to avoid being photographed who also seemed to cover their lips to keep from laughing. The Probsts condemned the teens' horrible behavior, claiming that the offenders "really had no remorse."
On Tuesday, KTNV filmed a court hearing in which Ayala's public attorney, David Westbrook, seemed to be laughing along with the teen.
After the media received the bodycam footage via a public records request, the New York Post said that Westbrook voiced his displeasure by suggesting he should have access to it first. Because of the widespread media coverage, which has outraged Probst's wife, the public defense has expressed worry that it will be difficult to find unbiased jurors for the trial.
"It was your people who put it in the media first. Your clients are the ones that put that on social media," Crystal Probst said, referring to the harrowing car-mounted video of the August murder.
As the Probst family was being led out of the courthouse, Ayala and Keys, with their hands chained to a "belly chain," turned to the gallery and smirked at them.
Crystal seemed undeterred by the duo's threats. She said that Ayala had pointed his middle finger at her. "It just makes him look bad," she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Ayala assured police, upon his first arrest on August 14, that he would be out of prison in a month.
Ayala's Arrest
On Monday, October 23, the police department revealed a body cam video in which Ayala can be heard asking the officer whether the incident was indeed that bad.
"Is it really that serious, like for real, over supposedly me crashing a car?" he asked, as heard in a clip posted by FOX5 Las Vegas. The cop answered, "It's a lot worse than that."
In a later conversation, Ayala once again asked if the police officer thought he would come out on the news. The officer said, "You might. It won't be for anything good. It won't make your mama proud."
Ayala's mother has previously made waves since she has publicly stated her inability to comprehend her son's actions.
Taylor Probst, the victim's daughter, believes that Ayala's and Keys' families are mostly to blame for their failures.
