Las Vegas lawyer, 77, who shot dead son’s ex-wife and her prominent attorney husband during custody case was dying from cancer after receiving terminal diagnosis, his former colleague claims

The Las Vegas attorney and his wife killed in a shooting at his office were shot by a fellow attorney diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Dennis Prince, 57, and Ashley Prince, 30, were fatally shot Monday morning during a deposition involving Ashley’s ex-husband, Dylan Houston. Prince represented his wife in the case.

Dylan was represented by his father, 77-year-old Joseph Houston II, who opened fire during the proceedings before turning the gun on himself.

Now Robert Eglet, a Las Vegas trial attorney and close friend of Prince for decades, has revealed that Houston had confided in an interview just days earlier that he was dying of cancer. Fox News digital.

“Joe told me not long before the shooting that he was dying of terminal cancer. I wonder if he felt like he had nothing to lose?’ Hedgehog said.

“But I really don’t know, I can’t make sense of it.”

According to a close friend of Prince’s, Houston had confided just days before the shooting that he was dying of terminal cancer

Gunfire broke out at Prince Law Group’s Summerlin office around 10 a.m., according to Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill.

“You know, it’s so tragic I can’t even put it into words,” Eglet said.

Court documents filed hours later detail the moments leading up to the senseless violence.

Five minutes after the deposition began, Houston “stood up, had a very glassy and rattled look in his eyes, pulled out a gun and shot Prince four times,” the documents said.

As the shots rang out, Houston appeared to take note of a pregnant lawyer who was in the room — and spare her life.

The woman, identified as Shannon Wilson, “immediately ducked and hid under the table in the conference room.”

Michele LoBello, another attorney for Ashley Prince, claimed Wilson begged the shooter not to hurt her baby.

“She explained to me that Mr. Houston allowed her to leave the conference room and after she quickly left and took cover elsewhere in the office, she heard more shots fired,” LoBello said.

Prince represented his wife in an ongoing custody case involving her ex-husband, Houston’s son Dylan

Gunfire erupted Monday morning during a deposition, with Houston pulling out a gun and shooting Prince four times in the chest

Before Prince turned the gun on himself, it appeared he spared the life of a pregnant lawyer who begged him not to hurt her baby.

Dylan Houston himself was not present at the deposition, but the documents show that a private investigator had recorded “concerning information regarding plaintiff’s drinking and dangerous behavior” a month earlier.

The investigator allegedly saw Dylan driving home from a bar on March 29, weaving across the road.

Dylan, a partner at Resnick & Louis in Las Vegas, filed for divorce from Ashley in October 2021 after four years of marriage.

According to social media posts, the couple were together for several years before getting married, with Ashley announcing that she and Dylan were moving in together in 2014.

She was identified in court filings last month as Ashley Prince.

A divorce decree issued in November 2021 granted the couple joint custody of their children, a son and daughter aged 5 and 4, but this remained in dispute.

According to divorce filings, Dylan struggled with substance abuse while he had custody of their children.

Another of Ashley’s lawyers, John Jones, referred to ‘a positive drug test for cocaine’ and ‘a positive alcohol test while in custody’ and ‘a missed alcohol test’.

Dylan Houston was not present for the deposition, but records show that Ashley filed for sole custody of the couple’s young son and daughter on the morning of the shooting.

Divorce filings reveal Dylan, who was arrested for DUI in 2020, struggled with substance abuse while in custody of children

Gunshots rang out at Prince Law Group’s Summerlin office around 10 a.m. Monday

Records show that Dylan was arrested in October 2020 on a DUI charge, but later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

Following his no contest plea in February 2022, Dylan was ordered to complete community service and DUI classes.

Records also show that he would send abusive text messages to Ashley, who had filed for sole custody of the couple’s children on the morning of the shooting.

Within hours of her death, Ashley’s lawyers filed an emergency motion asking that sole custody of the children be given to her sister. The motion was granted.

In that document, LoBello claimed that Dylan “was or must have been aware of his father’s intentions prior to committing these heinous acts.”

She cited an attempt to retrieve his children’in the middle of the school day, despite details of (Ashley’s) status as dead or alive not being made public at this time.”

Dylan responded in response to the accusations.

“The motivation for the April 8, 2024 tragedy is unknown to anyone other than Joseph W. Houston himself. “The defense’s suggestion that this was a ‘planned attack’ on the prosecution is insulting and quite speculative,” he wrote.

He claimed his actions were “not indicative of a co-conspirator, as the defense callously wants the Court to believe, but rather of a concerned father who wants to protect, comfort, love and support his children from any unnecessary discussion of this tragedy.” . .

Prince was the founding member and lead trial attorney on all major cases, according to a biography on the firm’s website

The 57-year-old and his wife, identified in court filings last month as Ashley Prince, had recently welcomed a child together

According to a biography on the law firm’s website, Prince was the founding member and lead trial attorney on all major cases.

He was recognized by the Nevada Justice Association as the Nevada Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2016 and was trying more than 100 cases to jury verdict at the time of his death.

He and Ashley had also recently welcomed a child together.

The advocacy group released a statement hours after the killings, thanking “everyone who has contacted us with heartfelt messages of concern and condolences regarding the tragic violence that occurred in our offices this morning.”

The Houston family released their own statement through a public relations firm on Tuesday.

“Our family is in a state of deep shock and sadness over yesterday’s events. We ask for prayers and privacy as we try to navigate the coming days,” it said.

“The Las Vegas Police Department is still investigating and while that continues, speculation about the details of the incident only adds further trauma to our already grieving and overwhelmed families.

“We have the utmost confidence in Metro’s efforts and will leave all future comments to them as their investigation unfolds.”