Children of slain Las Vegas lawyer file wrongful death lawsuit

Lawyers for two of slain Las Vegas attorney Dennis Prince’s children filed a wrongful death lawsuit in District Court on Friday.

Scot Prince and Taylor Prince See, according to a 14-page complaint, are seeking punitive damages following the shooting death of their father, Dennis Prince, in 2024.

Prince, 57, was shot and killed by Joseph Houston II, 77, at a Summerlin law office during a deposition on April 8, 2024. Houston, whose son Dylan Houston was the ex-husband of Prince’s wife Ashley Prince, 30, also shot and killed her. Dennis Prince was representing Ashley Prince in a contentious child custody battle with her ex-husband.

Joseph Houston, who had been representing his son in the dispute, then fatally shot himself.

The lawsuit names Joseph Houston’s estate, Joseph Houston Law, his widow Katherine Houston and Dylan Houston, who is Joseph and Katherine’s son. The lawsuit, which also alleges a civil conspiracy, claims that Katherine and Dylan Houston had prior knowledge of a plan by Joseph Houston to commit the homicides.

According to the lawsuit, Dylan Houston had sent threatening messages to Ashley Houston including “I don’t want to see you unless you’re in a casket” and others, but also an email to Dennis Prince on April 4, 2024, that said “you have no idea what’s coming do you, all your cards are on the table and I haven’t played one.”

On April 24, 2024, Katherine Houston transferred multiple properties, including three Clark County properties, into her name, according to the complaint. Dylan Houston lives in at least one of the properties, the complaint said. Properties were transferred into a living trust, the complaint said.

“The totality of circumstances underlying these matters, including Dylan Houston’s threatening messages, Dylan Houston’s April 4, 2024 e-mail, and Katherine Houston’s behavior after the shooting, including, but not limited to the July 28, 2025, transfer of real properties into the name of The Kelley Houston Revocable Living Trust dated July 14, 2025, allows reasonable inference of a civil conspiracy among the Houston family members,” the complaint alleged.

Police: No evidence Joseph Houston told anybody of his deadly plans

Las Vegas police have said, however, that Dylan Houston was not a suspect in the homicide investigation and that there was no evidence that Joseph Houston had told anybody of his plans to shoot and kill his former daughter-in-law and her new husband.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal also previously reported that Ashley Prince’s attorneys had alleged in a motion that Dylan Houston “knew or must have known of the intentions of his father prior to the commission of these heinous acts,” and that Dylan Houston had denied the accusation.

The lawsuit filed Friday says that Scot Prince and Taylor Prince See, as a result of the actions by the defendants, have suffered damages “including, but not limited to, the loss of financial support; loss of love, companionship, comfort, affection, society, solace and moral support; and the loss of training, guidance and education.”

Both are the children of Dennis Prince and Susan Barrett, Prince’s first wife. They were married from 1988 until 2011. Prince’s marriage to Ashley Prince was his fourth.

Court records show that Dylan Houston, who has worked as a lawyer in Las Vegas, filed for divorce from Ashley Prince in October 2021 after a four-year marriage.

The lawsuit states that Scot Prince is a Southern Nevada resident while Taylor Prince See lives in Massachusetts with her husband and family. At the time of the shooting, Scot was a student at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law.

A similar lawsuit was filed earlier this month in Clark County District Court by Nancy Bernstein, another of Dennis Prince’s ex-wives and the mother of one of his sons.

Metro said the shooting happened inside the offices of Prince Law Group, a personal injury, insurance law and commercial law firm on the fifth floor of the City National Bank Building at 10801 W. Charleston Blvd. Two months after the killings, the law firm announced it was closing.

Messages to Scot Prince and Las Vegas attorney Colin Cavanaugh, who filed the suit, were not immediately returned on Friday. Katherine and Dylan Houston could not be reached for comment.

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