‘GLAZED AND RATTLED’

Las Vegas Gunman Let Pregnant Lawyer Leave Before Killing 2 People: Docs

Attorney Joe Houston fatally shot his former daughter-in-law and her new husband, a fellow lawyer, before turning the gun on himself on Monday.

A lawyer who fatally shot two people during a deposition at a Las Vegas law firm on Monday morning allowed another attorney to leave the room because she explained she was pregnant, according to court records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Minutes after the deposition began in a conference room at the Prince Law Office Group, attorney Joe Houston stood up with “a very glazed and rattled look in his eyes, pulled out a handgun,” and shot fellow lawyer Dennis Prince four times, a filing reportedly explains. Another attorney in the room, Shannon Wilson, ducked under a table and “asked Mr. Houston please not to hurt her baby as she is pregnant,” it continues. Houston allowed Wilson to leave. Hiding elsewhere in the office, Wilson heard more shots being fired—possibly Houston gunning down a woman named Ashley Prince before turning his weapon on himself. Ashley Prince was previously identified by authorities as the ex-wife to Houston’s son, whom Houston had been representing in a yearslong custody battle with Prince. Since divorcing Houston’s son, she had remarried Dennis Prince, identified by the Review-Journal as a veteran trial lawyer representing his new wife in the custody fight.