Wayne Newton to get justice

Wayne Newton, perennial star of Las Vegas, testified before a Nevada jury this Tuesday. Testimony revealed he fired a warning shot at two burglars that he and his family encountered at their home last year.

“My wife was in hysterics and crying,” Newton said. He added that his wife, Kathleen McCrone Newton, was threatened by a tire iron before the robber used the metal rod against one of the family’s large Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs.

“She said, ‘Shoot ‘em. Shoot ‘em. There they are. He almost hit me with the pipe iron,’” the 77-year-old “Sunny Day Girl” singer said. “I decided to take one shot in the air. That was the last time I saw them.”

The testimony was given during the trial of Weslie Hosea Martin, a 22-year-old Nevada prison inmate. He is accused of being one of the burglars that night, and of also burglarizing the Newton mansion and a neighboring home 10 days earlier. A second suspect in the burglaries is as yet unidentified.

A public defender for Martin, Will Ewing, admitted during opening statements that Martin’s face was captured on a doorbell security camera at the neighboring home the night of the first Newton home robbery, on June 3, 2018. The Newtons were in New York at the time.

But 10 days later, the burglars returned, and tried to pry open a safe in Wayne Newton’s dressing room. They wore bandannas on their faces and Ewing told jurors that only a vague video image might tie Martin to the break-in.

Martin was arrested last July. He was detained for questioning after he sold items to a coin and jewelry business which matched an inventory taken from the Newton home. Martin has pleaded not guilty to 11 felonies and faces sentencing as a habitual criminal if he’s convicted.

Thankfully, the Newtons escaped injury. However, their dogs were treated by a veterinarian for head injuries and broken teeth.