Frugal computer geek at CES Las Vegas shot while sleeping in rental car

[Dan Druff]

Neil Brian Gandler was a gentle, well-liked computer geek from the San Francisco bay area. He had attended 14 consecutive CES conferences in Vegas, but chose to sleep in his rental car (strange choice in cold January) rather than spring for a hotel room. Gandler was employed and could have afforded a hotel.

He slept in the 24 Hour Fitness parking lot, and would use the gym to shower in the morning.

While sleeping in the lot at about 1am on December 28, two white trash losers (one male, one female) decided to rob him. Kyle Staats appraoched Gandler's car, and knocked on the window. Shortly after, Gandler said "Don't do it!", and Staats shot him dead while he was still in the car.

http://www.mercurynews.com/californi...eath-palo-alto

http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/....cspx?rss=3269

Staats and 19-year-old girfriend Megan Hippie (lol at that name) were on a crime spree, and decided to rob Gandler. Hippie did not know or expect that Gandler would be killed. She confessed to the police.

Strange how this occurred shortly after we discussed sleeping in one's car on a recent radio show.

[gut]

I'm no criminal mastermind, but somebody sleeping in a car in January (in the city where people go busto all the time) would not be my first choice of who to rob.

[vegas1369]

This was kind of a big story here, but never heard the CES angle and him sleeping in his car.

CES started today though. He was going to sleep in his car for more than a week?

[Dan Druff]

Police report from the incident: http://www.news3lv.com/media/lib/166...e_16F0006B.pdf

Cliffs: Surveillance video of the shooting wasn't enough to identify the suspects, but they got a tip from an informant that Megan Hippie had been talking about being involved in the murder.

When they confronted her, they found the identical car to what appeared in the video, and she immediately admitted that she was involved in the murder, and gave up the location of Kyle Staats. She also explained that Kyle Staats unexpectedly killed the victim, stating, "I think I got him."

Amazingly, they continued breaking into vehicles after the murder occurred, and Kyle even stole one of them.

I hope they execute Staats for this. He deserves it.

[IAmProfessionalTalk]

She'll spend 6 months in prison, tops. It's nice to have a pink vagina and never be accountable for your actions.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Just so absurd, someone in his position resorting to sleeping in a car in January. He probably didn't even keep car running for warmth. If he was that cheap and frugal, he could have even resorted to couch surfing. Probably went food harvesting too. (dumpster diving) I watched a reality show were someone took lobster carcasses and put tuna in them for crab meat and charged 40 a head for cooking course which six people attended.

Big fail at these 2 clowns choosing to rob someone sleeping in a car.

[Peter Binklage]

She'll spend 6 months in prison, tops. It's nice to have a pink vagina and never be accountable for your actions.

Nah, this is quintessential felony murder. I'll take the over on 1 year and lay 3-1 if you want to bet on it. I'll also bet on life or even the death penalty if you wanna lay some odds.

[IAmProfessionalTalk]

She'll spend 6 months in prison, tops. It's nice to have a pink vagina and never be accountable for your actions.

Nah, this is quintessential felony murder. I'll take the over on 1 year and lay 3-1 if you want to bet on it. I'll also bet on life or even the death penalty if you wanna lay some odds.

Having read more reports, she's much more culpable than I originally thought. She won't be executed though. There are 80 guys on death row in Nevada and nobody has been killed in 10 years.

[Dan Druff]

http://www.meetme.com/meganlevi1

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Everyone seemingly lost interest in this case. They stopped reporting on it in both the Las Vegas and Palo Alto area media in mid-late 2016. There are zero reports on the internet as to the resolution of this.

I decided to look it up for myself tonight.

For the actual murderer, Kyle Staats:

07/05/2018 8:30 AM
- Matter resolved. CONFERENCE AT BENCH. NEGOTIATIONS are as contained in the Guilty Plea Agreement FILED IN OPEN COURT. DEFT. KYLE STAATS ARRAIGNED AND PLED GUILTY TO COUNT 6 - MURDER WITH USE OF A DEADLY WEAPON (FIRST DEGREE) (F). Court ACCEPTED plea, and ORDERED, matter referred to the Division of Parole and Probation (P&P), and SET for sentencing; trial date VACATED. CUSTODY 9/06/18 8:30 A.M. SENTENCING (COUNT 6) / DISMISSAL OF REMAINING COUNTS

So basically he pled guilty or the first degree murder on July 5, 2018, and the court dropped all of the other related charges (such as the car thefts and break-ins).

He will be sentenced tomorrow. While the court records do not state the terms of Kyle's plea, I'm assuming he accepted life without possibility of parole, in exchange for dropping the death penalty. I'll try to look this up again in a few days.


His accomplice, Meghan Hippie, also pled guilty.

06/04/2018 8:30 AM
- Guilty Plea Agreement and Second Amended Indictment FILED IN OPEN COURT. NEGOTIATIONS: Defendant to plead guilty to the Second Amended Indictment. Defendant agrees to the terms in Exhibit 2 (which is filed under seal). The State retains the right to argue for concurrent or consecutive time between counts. Defendant stipulates to a sentence of 8-20 years as to Count 1 and understands that she will not be granted probation for this offense, according to the Agreement. Ms. Weckerly concurred. DEFENDANT HIPPIE WITHDREW NOT GUILTY PLEAS AND PLED GUILTY to COUNT 1 - VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER WITH USE OF A DEADLY WEAPON (F) and COUNT 2 - ATTEMPT ROBBERY WITH USE OF A DEADLY WEAPON (F). Court FINDS Defendant competent to enter her plea. Court ACCEPTED her pleas; referred matter to the Division of Parole and Probation for a Pre-sentence Investigation Report and ORDERED, trial date VACATED and SET for sentencing. Further, Ms. Weckerly requested a transcript of this hearing be prepared, but sealed and that it and any documents be released to Mr. Staats's attorneys. COURT SO ORDERED. CUSTODY 8/7/18 8:30 AM SENTENCING

Her guilty plea was to two counts: Voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon AND attempted robbery with use of a deadly weapon.

She was originally charged with murder, so this was a plea down to voluntary manslaughter. She agreed to a sentence of 8-20 years for the manslaughter, and it isn't clear what her sentence will be for the attempted robbery with a deadly weapon. Her sentence was listed as having taken place on August 7, 2018, but in reality it will be in six days on September 11. She also agreed to no probation, but the above does not mention a parole possibility.

I never completely understood Meghan's role in the whole thing. It seemed to me that Kyle Staats was the drug-addicted, violent criminal, and he committed the murder without Meghan's knowledge until after it occurred. She was far from innocent, as she was participating repeatedly with Kyle in the car thefts and break-ins. Furthermore, she and Kyle coldly kept breaking into cars AFTER the murder, which looks pretty bad. But from what I can tell, she did not carry a weapon, nor was she aware Kyle was going to kill anyone. I do believe she was aware that Kyle was going to use the gun to rob the sleeping Gandler, which is probably why she was charged with murder and was treated more harshly than a ride-along car-break-in accomplice.

Meghan has already spent 2 2/3 years in jail, which I assume she will get as credit. If she's eligible for parole, she may be back out on the street in not too long. However, I doubt she'll reoffend -- at least not something like this. 8 years was probably an appropriate sentence for her.

Any sentence short of life in prison for Kyle Staats would be far too lenient, though. But given that they had him by the balls, I'm pretty sure they weren't accepting any plea for less than life in prison with no parole.

If you want to look up the cases, they are C-16-312888-1 and C-16-312888-2. You can search by case number here: https://www.clarkcountycourts.us/Ano...ch.aspx?ID=400

[devidee]

Two fatties.

(((obviously)))

[Dan Druff]

Megan Hippie was sentenced on Tuesday:

COURT ORDERED, in addition to the $25.00 Administrative Assessment fee, $150.00 DNA Analysis fee including testing to determine genetic markers, $3.00 DNA Collection fee, $5,000.00 Restitution to be paid jointly and severally with Co-Deft. Kyle Staats to State of Nevada Victims of Crime, and $957.28 Restitution to be paid jointly and severally with Co-Deft. Kyle Staats to victim Daniel Kaelin, Deft. SENTENCED on COUNT 1 - to a MINIMUM of FOUR (4) YEARS and a MAXIMUM of TEN (10) YEARS in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC), plus a CONSECUTIVE TERM of a MINIMUM of FOUR (4) YEARS and a MAXIMUM of TEN (10) YEARS in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC), for use of a deadly weapon; and COUNT 2 - to a MINIMUM of TWENTY FOUR (24) MONTHS and a MAXIMUM of SEVENTY TWO (72) MONTHS in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC), plus a CONSECUTIVE TERM of a MINIMUM of TWENTY FOUR (24) MONTHS and a MAXIMUM of SEVENTY TWO (72) MONTHS in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC), for use of a deadly weapon; COUNT 2 to run CONCURRENT to COUNT 1, with NINE HUNDRED EIGHTY THREE (983) DAYS CREDIT FOR TIME SERVED. TOTAL AGGREGATE SENTENCE is a MINIMUM of EIGHT (8) YEARS and a MAXIMUM of TWENTY (20) YEARS in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC). BOND, if any, EXONERATED. NDC

Basically she has to pay $6k in restitution to the state, and was sentenced to two concurrent 8-20 year state prison sentences. She received 983 days (2.7 years) credit for time served already.

It is unclear to me whether she will be eligible for parole before completing the minimum 8 years.



Regarding Kyle Staats:

COURT ORDERED, in addition to the $25.00 Administrative Assessment fee, $150.00 DNA Analysis fee including testing to determine genetic markers, if not already done so, $3.00 DNA Collection fee, $5,000.00 Restitution to be paid jointly and severally with Co-Deft. Megan Lee Hippie, to State of Nevada Victims of Crime, $2,300.91 Restitution to victim Allison Dean, and $957.28 Restitution to be paid jointly and severally with Co-Deft. Megan Lee Hippie, to victim Daniel Kaelin, Deft. SENTENCED on COUNT 6 - to LIFE with the possibility of parole after a MINIMUM of TWENTY (20) YEARS is served in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC), plus a CONSECUTIVE term of a MINIMUM of TWELVE (12) MONTHS and a MAXIMUM of THIRTY (30) MONTHS in the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC), for use of deadly weapon, with NINE HUNDRED SEVENTY NINE (979) DAYS CREDIT FOR TIME SERVED

Sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 20 years served in prison. He also got another year in prison from a separate count, but got 979 days credit for time served.

Actually a pretty good deal for him. I thought he'd get life WITHOUT the possibility of parole, in exchange for the death penalty being off the table. Instead, he could be out of prison by early 2037, and will only be 49 years old.

Given all the evidence they had, the prosecutors should have refused to deal unless he accepted life with no possibility of parole.


A publication finally covered the results of the case: https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/...-of-palo-altan and https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/...-altans-murder

[MumblesBadly]

Druff, have you thought of going to law school given that poker — at least limit varieties — is dead”? Then apply to become an assistant prosecutor at one of the many counties in California? I’m guessing that you would ace law school and soon thereafter be working to put bad guys (except The Real Badguy23) behind bars for maximum justice.



Wait a minute! That’s the wrong GIF. Here’s the correct on:



This guy is probably a personsl injury lawyer, but close enough.