LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It’s been more than six months since Las Vegas Metro Police say 30-year-old Spencer McDonald killed three people and tried to kill another at a Southwest Valley apartment complex.
In a jailhouse interview with Channel 13, McDonald admitted to his involvement in the murders and called the victims ‘problematic.’
Police said the victims included McDonald’s own grandmother, her boyfriend and apartment maintenance worker 45-year-old Chris Brassard.
At the time, Brassard was conducting a welfare check with a co-worker when police said he was stabbed to death.
Friends and family members of Brassard are still grieving his loss and fighting for justice. They tell Channel 13 it’s been a long path to justice for him.
Originally from Massachusetts, friends remember Brassard as a devoted Boston Bruins fan, a lover of life and a big jokester.
“He’d walk into a room, we’d crack a joke here and there, Chris was really good at working a crowd,” said friend of more than 30 years Chris Kirouac. “We were both just big kids.”
Kirouac said he kept in contact with Brassard even when he moved away to Las Vegas more than a decade ago. Brassard’s close friend Kyle Kolb also shares cherished memories.
“He was always bright-eyed and looking for a great time,” said Kolb. “He always tried to cheer people up and he didn’t like when people were down.”
Branden Lillegaard, a friend of Brassard who lives in Las Vegas, said the path to seek justice for his friend has been long and drawn out because of delays in proceedings for the suspect’s competency evaluations.
“It’s been a battle. One thing after another,” said Lillegaard. “You kind of expect it when you lose someone like that but it’s hit worse since my wife and I have been to Boston and we’ve met all of his friends and most of his family.”
But following a hearing last September, McDonald was found competent to stand trial.
The district attorney is now seeking the death penalty against McDonald. According to transcripts from the death penalty hearing, McDonald was offered to take capital punishment off the table in exchange for life without parole but he didn’t accept.
McDonald’s public defender Scott Coffee said he’s in the process of gathering McDonald’s past medical records which he said are going to be “voluminous.”
Jaewon: Mr. McDonald, did you kill those three people?
McDonald: Yes.
Jaewon: What was your motive?
McDonald: These three which were presented to me were very easy problems.
McDonald also denied any history of mental illness.
Brassard’s friends tell Channel 13 if McDonald ends up in a psychiatric hospital instead of state prison, it would add insult to injury.
“I don’t want this guy breathing another air on this earth,” said Kirouac. “What he did to my best friend, to my brother is unacceptable.”
They believe mental illness should not be used a scapegoat in this situation.
“They try to use mental illness for everything nowadays,” said Lillegaard. “I don’t think that’s fair to the people who actually have mental illnesses because then it gets overlooked.”
A framed picture of Brassard will forever sit in the living room of Lillegaard, an important honor to his best friend.
“My daughter comes in and says hi to him. She says she feels like he’s watching,” said Lillegaard.
McDonald is scheduled to be back in court for a trial readiness check in April. His trial is set for March 2025.
