Suspect Admitted Killing 1 Horse, Detective Testifies

One of three men accused of slaughtering wild horses admitted he shot and killed one of the animals to put it out of its misery, a detective testified Friday.

Anthony Merlino, 20, a Reno construction worker, also told the detective he returned to the hills east of Reno days later to retrieve rifle shell casings so investigators wouldn’t find his fingerprints.

The testimony came in the third day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to try the three suspects in Storey County District Court.

Merlino and two ex-Marines, Scott Brendle, 22, and Darien Brock, 21, are accused of killing more than two dozen horses in December.

Defense attorneys have emphasized an absence of fingerprints and inconclusive ballistics tests as prosecutors have struggled to prove their case.

Storey County Dist. Atty. Janet Hess told reporters Friday that she was confident the case would go to trial.

“So far, you’ve just heard one side from the defense in the media,” she said.

Brendle confessed to shooting and wounding one horse but not killing it, another detective testified this week. Brendle also hiked back into the hills at night to retrieve evidence and dispose of it, but all three suspects deny involvement in the deaths of any other horses.

Larry Camfield, a Washoe County sheriff’s detective, said Merlino told him after his arrest in January that someone else shot the horse he put down.

Merlino told the detective the horse was suffering and he felt sorry for it. Merlino also said he had seen another vehicle in the area, a red Humvee. He told the detective: “There’s somebody else out there who killed those horses.”