Slaughter Suspect Says He Saw Slaying of One Horse, Not 34

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. —  A Marine accused of taking part in the slaughter of 34 wild horses said he saw his two friends shoot one horse but doesn’t know anything about the other animals killed in a canyon just east of Reno.

“I watched my two friends kill this horse without doing anything about it. Yes, that is wrong. That is what I’m going to court for. But we did not kill 34 horses that night,” Lance Cpl. Darien Brock said.

“I saw them kill one,” Brock said in a jailhouse interview Thursday with KGTV in San Diego. “Maybe they did go back, maybe they didn’t. Maybe there was somebody else out there, I don’t know.”

Also arrested was fellow Marine Lance Cpl. Scott Brendle, 21, and construction worker Anthony Merlino, 20, high school buddies of Brock.

Merlino, who neighbors say bragged about shooting birds in the yard and gutted a deer on his living room carpet, was dressed in a dark suit and tie when he was arraigned Friday before a Storey County justice of the peace.

Sheriff’s deputies blocked off the streets for a block around the courthouse.

“We have an obvious concern for the safety of the defendant. It is an emotional trial,” Storey County Sheriff Pat Whitten said.

All three men--who attended Reno’s Wooster High School together--are accused of shooting the wild mustangs that roam the hillsides about 5 miles east of the Reno-Sparks area.

All three face the same charges--grand theft, grand larceny and poisoning, maiming or killing another person’s animal--punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

Brendle, 21, of Reno, was expected to waive extradition and return to Nevada to face charges, prosecutors said.

Brock has indicated that he will fight extradition. Dressed in a Navy jail jumpsuit, he did not speak during his arraignment Friday in San Diego.

He was ordered held on $65,000 bond. His extradition hearing was postponed until Tuesday so a Reno attorney hired by his family can travel to San Diego.

The two Marines were home on leave when the horses were shot Dec. 27, authorities said.

Brock admitted that he had killed a wild horse years ago. “I killed one six years ago,” he said.

He said he was shocked and scared when he heard that 34 horses had been shot in the area where he and his friends had been.

Brock, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, was transferred to a mental health facility after he mentioned suicide Wednesday night, but was later returned to jail.

Brendle was transferred Wednesday from the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms east of Los Angeles to a nearby jail pending his extradition to Nevada, said the jail watch commander, Sgt. Gerry Tessler.

Merlino posted $60,000 bail and was released Thursday from the Washoe County Jail in Reno.

At the request of Storey County Dist. Atty. Janet Hess, Justice of the Peace Annette Daniels ordered Merlino to have no contact with either of the other suspects.

She said he should not keep any weapons in his possession or commit any “acts of violence against animals or people” while free on bail.