Ex-trooper waiting to see if his case is finally over

A former state trooper says his faith in the legal system has taken a 180- degree turn since being accused of murdering his wife in 1989.

"I used to be a strong believer in the law," 60-year-old George Warner said two days after District Judge Jeffrey Sobel dismissed a murder charge that has hung over the ex-lawman's head like a guillotine for nine years.

But now Warner quotes an expert in fire investigation, Carl Duncan, who volunteered to help him, just as Warner's two attorneys -- John Watkins and Jack Howard -- have volunteered their services since looking into the case and deciding he was being unjustly accused.

"Carl said 'if this is justice, we're all in trouble,'" Warner said Sunday.

On Friday Sobel ruled that because evidence crucial to Warner's defense -- including a burned chair -- was not preserved the defendant could not get a fair trial.

Missing evidence includes a lounge chair, ottoman, carpet and a robe.

Now Warner must wait to see if prosecutors are going to appeal the decision or seek another grand jury indictment, which would be the fourth one to be called to investigate the evidence against Warner.

It is not the first time he has waited -- he said his life has been on hold for nine years.

And though he is not in prison, he still is a prisoner.

"I could not leave the state while the charges were pending," he said, "and now I won't leave until this case is done for good."

Then, he said, he will put Nevada behind him.

"If this was over for good, I would be gone," he said. "This state doesn't have anything for me at this point now. It is frustrating to try to get the truth out in this town."

Warner found himself on the other side of law enforcement after his fifth wife, Carol, 54, died 15 days after suffering burns over 85 percent of her body in a fire at the couple's mobile home on June 5, 1989.

Prosecutors have alleged that Warner, who had been with the highway patrol nine years at the time, doused his wife with a flammable liquid as she slept in a living room chair and then set her on fire.

Warner claims his deceased wife's family pushed for his arrest, even though there was no evidence against him.

One thing that bothered prosecutors was the fact that in 1981 Warner's fourth wife, Nancy, was slightly injured in a mobile home fire at the couple's residence in Pahrump.

She allegedly told authorities the fire occurred following an argument between her and Warner.

Warner noted investigators found the fire started from a defective lamp and that he and his wife continued to live together for several months after the incident, until he decided to get a divorce.

At the time he was a warrant officer with the highway patrol, waiting to become a full-fledged trooper.

Warner said a lamp probably also caused the fire that killed his fifth wife.

He said they had a puppy who had a habit of chewing on wiring and that after the fire he was shown a lamp and that the wire appeared to have been gnawed on.

He said he was asleep at the time of the June 5, 1989, fire and was awakened by a scream. He said smoke filled the bedroom, making it impossible to see anything.

He said he pushed on a window and fell through to the outside and his wife came out the same way a moment later.

Fifteen days later Warner's wife died from pneumonia and other complications.

Shortly after that he was charged with murder and was forced to resign from the highway patrol.

He denies he did it for his wife's life insurance, $25,000, or that he was seeing anyone and wanted out of the marriage, as some family members claim.

Not long after being charged with murder he suffered a heart attack and now his only source of income, he said, is a disability check.

He stays with a friend for free.

He can't find work, he said, not only because of a heart condition but because no one will hire him because of his notoriety as a result of the case.

Warner believes that since the district attorney's office can't prosecute him, they are persecuting him.

He said twice, since the series of hearings and grand jury proceedings, he has had to come up with $75,000 bail, which depleted his savings.

In 1995 District Judge Myron Leavitt threw out the case because evidence he had ordered preserved had been destroyed or lost in the aftermath of the June 5, 1989, at the mobile home in Desert Inn Mobile Home Estates, 3579 Estes Park Drive, near Desert Inn Road and Nellis Boulevard.

In 1996 the Nevada Supreme Court reinstated the murder case following an appeal by the district attorney's office.

In its ruling the court said Warner failed to prove how the lost evidence would help his case. Warner said the evidence would have shown that gasoline was not poured on the victim.

The Clark County district attorney's office has conceded it did not find any accalarant on the furniture. Its arson theory is based on expert examination of photographs of the mobile home and of the victim's body, which suggest that the burn patterns were consistent with arson.

But the chair and ottoman were never preserved by investigators and the mobile home eventually was repossessed by the mortgage company and destroyed.

Warner's attorneys claim they were deprived of their right to test the chair and other items to prove the former lawman's innocence.

"Prosecutors have no facts, just theory," Warner said.

archive