State Supreme Court opens heavy fall term

CARSON CITY -- Returning from its two-month summer hiatus, the Nevada Supreme Court opened its fall term today with a week of hearings, including appeals from four death-row inmates.

This will be the swan song for Chief Justice Charles Springer, who is retiring in January, the same time the court will be expanded from five to seven members.

Since June, the justices have worked on old cases, and they decided to abandon the traditional week of oral arguments in November to concentrate on cleaning up pending cases.

"We're putting out more cases than are coming in," Springer said. "It's the greatest output the court has ever had. I attribute that to staff."

One death-penalty appeal next week comes from Patrick McKenna, whose criminal life has spanned four decades. He is considered one of Nevada's most dangerous prisoners.

In January 1979, McKenna was convicted of strangling his cellmate, J.J. Nobles, in the Clark County Detention Center. During his numerous appeals, the death penalty has been overturned twice. In 1996, in a heavily guarded courtroom in Las Vegas, he was sentenced to death a third time.

In his appeal, McKenna says the intense security measures in the courtroom prejudiced the jury and denied him a fair trial. His legs were shackled, but the tables in the courtroom of District Judge Myron Leavitt were positioned so that the jury could not see them. A belt capable of delivering a 50,000 volt shock also was attached to his body under his shirt.

A dozen officers guarded the courtroom.

McKenna's lawyers also say the sentence should be overturned a third time because of the introduction during his penalty hearing of evidence that McKenna had previously been sentenced to death.

Since he was a teenager, McKenna has been in trouble with the law involving rapes, kidnappings, attempted murder and several escape tries. In addition, prison guards have discovered weapons or escape tools in his cell on various occasions.

His appeal will be heard Wednesday, but McKenna, now 52, will not be present.

On Thursday the high court will hear arguments in the case of Gregory Leonard, sentenced to death for the strangulation slaying in 1994 of 65-year-old Thomas B. Williams in the Las Vegas apartment where both men had units.

Leonard, now 36, was arrested after police discovered he had pawned rings and a shotgun belonging to the victim.

Leonard, through his lawyers, contends errors were made at the trial during jury selection; that a key prosecution witness made improper contact with jurors; that jury instructions were flawed; and that the evidence was insufficient to convict him.

He also objected to the introduction of evidence that the body of murder victim Tony Antee was found under his bed during a search of his apartment in the Williams case.

A death-penalty appeal to be heard today is from Thomas Collman, 27, convicted of beating to death his girlfriend's 3-year-old son in 1996 in White Pine County. Collman claimed the child, Damien Stach, fell down the stairs at home and injured himself. Testimony at the trial showed the child had 70 bruises on his body.

David Middleton, an ex-Miami police officer, is appealing his death-penalty sentence in the Washoe County murder of two women. He was charged with killing elementary schoolteacher Katherine Powell in February 1995 and Reno casino worker Thelma Davila in August 1994.

Powell's remains were found in a trash bin in a parking lot. Davila disappeared in August 1994 and her skeleton was found in a meadow west of Reno.

The high court's first hearing today is an appeal from Louisiana-Pacific Corp., which is contesting a state-imposed $840,000 fine that at the time was a record for job-safety violations.

The state Division of Industrial Relations cited the company for 12 violations after an employee was crushed to death under a conveyor at the plant that manufactures laminated veneer lumber in Fernley.

archive