Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Nevada Supreme Court rejects appeal of Henderson man facing life sentence

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Henderson killer Robert Lamb, sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole for the murder of his sister.

The court also denied the petition of Robert Ybarra Jr., who claimed he couldn't be put to death for a killing in White Pine County because he was mentally handicapped.

Lamb, who was 57 at the time, shot his younger sister, Susan Bivans, eight times in 2004 in the parking lot outside her daughter’s private school, Warren-Walker Elementary School on Windmill Parkway in Henderson. Prosecutors say he was angry because he was left out of the will of his father.

Lamb maintained he made statements to police before receiving his Miranda rights that he didn't have to talk to authorities. Henderson police asked Lamb if he knew anybody named Susan and he denied that he did. His rights were then given.

The court declined Thursday to grant the argument that his constitutional rights were violated.

Lamb also challenged the sufficiency of evidence, a claim the high court rejected.

Ybarra, now 57, was sentenced to death in 1981 for murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and battery in the death of his girlfriend, 16-year old Nancy Griffin in White Pine County.

Griffin was taken to the desert outside Ely, raped and set on fire with gasoline. She was found wandering naked in the desert and identified her assailant before she died the next day.

This is Ybarra’s fourth appeal to the Supreme Court. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a mentally handicapped person can't be executed.

The court said Ybarra hadn't demonstrated he was mentally handicapped and struck his motion to escape the death penalty.

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