Brother of one of Calambro's murder victims looks forward to execution

CARSON CITY - The brother of one of Alvaro Calambro's murder victims says he hopes Calambro's June 13 execution goes ahead as scheduled - and he'll be there to see the condemned man die by injection.

"It's not anything I look forward to," said George Christopher of Yerington, brother of Keith Christopher whose skull was crushed with a hammer in January 1994. "But it's something that will give the family closure."

"My reason for being there is to tell the family, 'Yes, it really did happen,"' added Christopher, 42, whose parents also live in Yerington. No other family members requested to be witnesses.

Christopher also said Calambro's mother "had no right" to file what's known as a "next friend" petition on behalf of her son, in efforts to stop the execution.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled Wednesday before Washoe District Judge Steve Elliott.

"She interfered before," Christopher said of the family's efforts to stop the execution when it was scheduled three years ago. "But the state Supreme Court stated his appeal wasn't justified."

"I think the Supreme Court made the right decision," he said of the high court's decision in January to reject an appeal filed on Calambro's behalf.

As for Calambro, Christopher said "he's down to the point where he wants to take responsibility for what he did, by not talking to anyone. I think he just wants to get his punishment over with."

While a public defender says Calambro has a low IQ and doesn't know what he's doing, Christopher added, "He knows right from wrong, and IQ doesn't have anything to do with the act he committed."

Christopher also said Calambro's family hasn't come to see him while he has been in prison, and the effort now to stop the execution is "just to get public sympathy."

Christopher also wanted to witness the execution when it was scheduled nearly three years ago, even though he was on crutches following a serious auto accident.

No longer able to work in construction or in the recycling business he was starting at the time of the wreck, Christopher said he now wants to study criminal psychology.

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