Deadly 2020 shooting case leads to guilty plea | Courts

A man accused in a 2020 shooting that targeted two dozen people and left one person dead has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to 23 charges.

Christopher McDonnell, 32, entered the plea Thursday before District Judge Tierra Jones, according to court records. The charges he admitted to included first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder and multiple counts of discharging a firearm at or into an occupied vehicle.

Prosecutors plan to argue for a sentence that would last longer than his natural life.

Authorities said McDonnell, his brother Shawn McDonnell and Kayleigh Lewis hatched a plan for a series of shootings, which targeted nearly two dozen people, most of them in vehicle-to-vehicle shootings in Henderson and Bouse, Arizona.

Kevin Mendiola Jr., 22, of North Las Vegas, was killed outside a 7-Eleven in the 800 block of East Lake Mead Parkway in Henderson.

Lewis and Shawn McDonnell had gotten married weeks before the shooting. At the time, Christopher McDonnell was on parole for assaulting a family member.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 13.

Contact Noble Brigham at [email protected]. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.