Las Vegas Sun

April 19, 2024

Death penalty retrial next year in Vegas FBI agent killing

A retrial has been set next year for a man sentenced in 1991 to die for the killing of a Las Vegas FBI agent during a bank robbery.

Records show that Jose Echavarria arrived Tuesday at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas from death row at Ely State Prison to await his retrial, now scheduled in November 2020.

Echavarria was convicted in state court of murder in the shooting death of FBI Special Agent John Bailey in June 1990.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last year upheld U.S. District Judge Miranda Du's ruling in 2015 in Nevada that Echavarria's trial was unfair.

Du said Echavarria's trial judge could have been biased because he'd been investigated previously by Bailey and the FBI on corruption allegations.