Background: News footage of Alex Renteria in court during his sentencing hearing on Thursday (KLAS). Inset: Christopher Brian Harris (Las Vegas Review-Journal Obituary).
A Nevada man appeared in a Las Vegas court after pleading guilty to fatally shooting his stepfather over an argument about toiletries.
Alex Renteria, 23, was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Renteria admitted to fatally shooting 47-year-old Christopher Brian Harris, his stepfather, in October 2024 after the younger man found his bathroom toiletries in the garbage and assumed that Harris threw them out.
The two men had a verbal argument that escalated into violence, and only one of them survived the night of Oct. 22, 2024.
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Local CBS affiliate KLAS was in the courtroom for the sentencing, which gave Renteria the opportunity to speak as well as several members of his family. Before the sentence was handed down, Renteria read a statement and claimed that Harris had a drinking problem that “scared” him. He said, “I told him to leave me alone, and I was scared. I picked up a firearm to make him back away. I never wanted to shoot him.”
Brian Harris, the son of the victim, countered his stepbrother”s claim, saying through tears, “My father loved him as a son, and I find it disgusting that you would sit here and slander him and say he was a drunkard.”
According to an arrest report obtained by local Fox affiliate KVVU at the time of the shooting, Renteria told police that he came home from work to find his toiletries in the garbage. He then confronted Harris, and the two men got into a verbal argument that quickly became heated. The report said that Renteria got a Glock handgun from his room and was holding it during the argument with Harris.
Renteria then returned to his room and got a bigger gun, an AR-15 rifle. Harris followed his stepson to his room, and Renteria fired a warning shot that hit a wall. When Harris tried to get the firearm away from Renteria, the younger man shot him in the hand and again in the leg. Renteria told police that he was not sure how many times he fired at Harris.
Harris was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to the arrest report, police asked Renteria why he did not just close his bedroom door to end the fight. He answered that “it would have likely just made things weird the next day.”
