LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Feelings had been excessive in a Las Vegas courtroom on Wednesday as the 2 tearful daughters of a lady murdered in 2003 spoke on the sentencing of a person who lately pleaded responsible to that homicide.
Convicted assassin Ricky Dealer, 48, was on parole for an additional 2003 homicide when he was arrested and charged in July 2024 with the homicide of Theresa Romano after his DNA related him to Romano’s case.
Ricky Dealer is responsible of killing Theresa Romano with a pair of scissors in 2003. DNA discovered on the crime scene was linked to Dealer throughout a assessment of her case in 2024. (Picture credit score: Patricia Hinger)
Clark County District Courtroom Decide Michelle Leavitt sentenced Dealer from 10 to 25 years for Romano’s homicide. Resulting from a plea deal, which lowered his cost to second-degree homicide, Dealer will serve that sentence on the identical time he serves the rest of his earlier homicide sentence, the place he violated parole. He had served 18 years of the 10-to-25-year sentence for that homicide.
He shall be in jail for a minimum of 10 years.
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“Mr. Trader pleaded guilty. He did not seek an Alford plea,” court docket data stated. “He is truly sorry for the loss of Ms. Theresa Romano’s life.”
“I hope you guys will be able to move forward,” Dealer stated to the sufferer’s daughters. “I cannot express to you how deeply sorry I am.”
Romano’s daughters, Courtney Foster and Patricia Hinger, had been 7 and 5 years previous when their mom was killed.
“I never thought I’d get an apology from the person who took my mom,” Foster stated. “It sounded genuine.”
“It’s been hard on both of us, but especially my sister,” stated Hinger, now the mom of a daughter.
“She’ll never know my mom. And like me, I don’t really know my mom. So, it kinda hurts for both of us.”
Whereas each ladies consider Dealer ought to spend the remainder of his life in jail, they do really feel as in the event that they obtained closure.
Dealer is at the moment being held within the Clark County Detention Heart, in accordance with paperwork.
