On a summer evening in Las Vegas on June 10, 2016, a 34-year-old Black / African American man named Clarence McQuarters was fatally shot, an act stemming from a place of jealousy. At the time of his death, McQuarters was a bus driver for the Regional Transportation Commission, known by friends as a kind man who would not hurt a fly and was always willing to help others.
The events that led to his untimely death began when Cortrayer Zone came to believe that his girlfriend was cheating on
him with McQuarters. Fueled by this suspicion, Zone and his friend, Michael Rusk, planned to confront McQuarters. The two men drove to McQuarters' apartment complex on Nellis Boulevard and laid in wait for over an hour for him to return home.
When McQuarters finally arrived, two masked men ambushed him and opened fire before fleeing the scene. The ensuing investigation led police to identify Zone and Rusk as the primary suspects. Following the shooting, Rusk fled, committed a robbery by taking a woman's cellphone, and then broke into a nearby apartment. He was apprehended after jumping from a balcony of the apartment he had invaded.
In October 2021, both Cortrayer Zone, then 43, and Michael Rusk, then 33, were convicted for their roles in the killing. A jury found both men guilty of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder. Rusk faced additional convictions for home invasion and robbery related to his actions after the shooting. Zone was facing the possibility of the death penalty for the murder of Clarence McQuarters.
