Published Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 | 5 p.m.
Updated Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 | 5:42 p.m.
CARSON CITY — A Las Vegas killer who jammed a screwdriver into the temple of his victim five years ago has lost his appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Corey James Malcolm Pearce was sentenced to life in prison without parole as the leader in the murder-robbery of Michael McClain in a warehouse in 2006.
The court rejected the defense argument that District Judge Valerie Adair improperly admitted gruesome photographs of the victim’s body.
Pearce was accused of being the leader in stabbing McClain in the neck with a pencil and hammering a screwdriver into his head. McClain’s diamond ring, his car and items from his safe were stolen.
Photographs were admitted at the trial of McClain’s decomposed body covered with maggots. The court said the photos were relevant “because, while gruesome, they showed how McClain was killed and how long after death his body was found. “
Receipts from pawn shop were admitted into evidence. Pearce challenged that. But the court said the evidence showed Pearce was in Las Vegas at the time of the killing before his cross-country flight.
Pearce also claimed he should have been allowed to present an affidavit to show McClain posed a threat to Pearce’s girlfriend. The court said that affidavit was irrelevant to the case.
Pearce’s co-defendants Joey Salas and Cassandra Thomas were both convicted of second-degree murder and robbery.
In another ruling the court overturned the second-degree murder conviction of Erasmo Moreno Pena, found guilty of the fatal shooting of Marcos “Gilbert” Valenzuela at a party in Las Vegas in November 1991.
The court said District Judge Jackie Glass was wrong not to allow the defense to call a witness to impeach the testimony of a prosecution witness.
Pena, sentenced to ten years to life in prison, will now return to district court for further hearings.
The court also reversed the second-degree murder conviction of Jesus R. Meraz, convicted in the shooting death of Jonathan Mozo-Daza outside a convenient store in North Las Vegas in 2005.
The victim’s girlfriend Karla Barboza was shot in the leg and testified at the first trial. But that ended in a mistrial.
At the second trial, the prosecution sought to introduce the affidavit of Barboza, saying she was in Mexico. The Supreme Court said the prosecution failed to make a reasonable effort to get Barboza to return and give live testimony.
She was the only live witness to the shooting.
The case returns to the court of District Judge Valerie Adair for further proceedings.
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