Child killer receives life term, with possibility of parole

An emotionless Alica Wegner -- neither apologizing to the family of the baby who died in her care nor asking for leniency from the judge -- was sentenced today to life in prison. She will be eligible for parole after 20 years.

That is the sentence Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon had recommended "to be fair and equitable to Ms. Wegner" and the recommendation of the state Parole and Probation Department.

While District Judge Mark Gibbons could have sent the 35-year-old licensed child-care worker to prison for life with no parole for the murder of 14-month-old Kierra Harrison, defense attorney Peter Christiansen Jr. told the judge, "Don't compound a tragedy with a travesty."

Wegner was convicted Dec. 3 of first-degree murder after a 3 1/2 week trial.

Pamela Rowse, the grandmother of the girl, had urged the maximum sentence, noting, "Alica Wegner is not the victim in this case."

"This isn't something a 24-year-old mother should have to go through," sobbed Amanda Harrison, the girl's mother, her face puffy from tears and her voice cracking from emotion.

"I trusted you with my baby," she cried to Wegner, who sat stone-faced.

Before today's sentencing, Wegner lost her second bid to sidestep the jury verdict.

Gibbons rejected a motion by defense attorneys to declare a mistrial on the grounds there had been prosecutorial misconduct. He earlier had declined to overrule the jury verdict and dismiss charges against the defendant.

The judge will decide on Friday whether Wegner will be released on bail pending appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court. She was free on bail for most of the past two years before her conviction. She has been in jail since.

Gibbons had indicated last week that he would consider setting bail, but prosecutors stated in court documents that Wegner doesn't deserve freedom because of the murder conviction and her connection to a skull fracture suffered by a second baby.

There also have been past allegations of abuse involving her own children.

Wegner also ignored court orders that she have only supervised visitation with her children during afternoon hours and can't be trusted to now follow court orders if she is released on bail, prosecutors said.

Deputy District Attorneys Vicki Monroe and Herndon additionally argued in the documents that there is a risk of flight by Wegner because of the mandatory prison term.

But defense attorneys have emphasized that Wegner was free on bail in the year before her trial and still showed up to face the jury that eventually convicted her.

Gibbons indicated last week that because of the "extraordinary" circumstances in the case involving disputed medical evidence and the actual cause of death, he is inclined to grant bail for Wegner.

Prosecution documents argue, however, that a 7-month-old girl in Wegner's care also suffered a skull fracture, although it was not life threatening and wasn't even detected until two weeks after Kierra died.

The two girls' fractures "were almost identical in location and description and a similar object or mechanism of injury could have been present in both cases," documents state.

That evidence was kept from the jury because of the tenuous connection to Wegner, but would have been allowed if Wegner had taken the witness stand in her own defense.

Complaints that Wegner abused her two young children came from a therapist and from Wegner's aunt in 1994, but did not result in substantiated charges by Child Protective Services.

Yet prosecutors say the allegations show Wegner has a problem dealing with children and there is a danger in allowing her access to children.

Despite the contention that Wegner violated court orders by having unsupervised visitation with her children during the time she was free awaiting trial, no new charges of abuse surfaced.

Prosecutors argue that bail should be denied and Wegner should immediately begin serving her mandatory prison sentence.

Herndon has said that Wegner collected money from friends and family for her defense but eventually was assigned court-appointed lawyers.

"This raises the question of where all of her money is now?" the prosecutor said. "A convicted murderer with access to money is a dangerous situation and an obvious flight risk."

In the motion for a new trial, defense attorneys had alleged prosecutorial misconduct by Monroe over a statement she made during closing arguments revealing medical tests that had been done but were ruled inadmissible as evidence by the judge.

The defense in the case was that Kierra's injuries occurred when she was in the care of her parents during the two days before she was taken to the child-care facility, where she eventually collapsed.

Tests by defense experts -- including the Mayo Clinic and the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology -- on tissue taken from the girl's brain after her death indicated an injury that had been inflicted prior to the date Kierra collapsed.

Gibbons ruled today that Monroe's statements didn't reach the legal level that required him to order a new trial. That issue, however, is expected to be resurrected in a Supreme Court appeal.

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