Defense in murder trial: Death penalty 'doesn't seem fair'

A District Court jury continued its quest today to decide whether convicted killer Sikia Smith is "the worst of the worst" and deserving of the death penalty or just a feeble-minded follower who made the bad choice of joining his buddies on a deadly robbery.

The jury already has convicted Smith of murder, robbery, kidnapping and other charges for his role in the ill-fated holdup nearly a year ago that ended with four young men being bound with duct tape and executed with bullets in the backs of their heads.

Jurors deliberated about two hours Thursday after closing arguments in the penalty hearing and returned today to decide whether the 19-year-old will live or die.

Although Smith on Wednesday heard the parents of the victims tell of the horror they have endured since their children died, he declined at the last day of the penalty hearing Thursday to apologize or show any remorse for his part in causing their grief.

Convicted killers routinely will give statements at their penalty hearings asking for leniency and apologizing for their acts. At a minimum, murderers usually express sorrow for the suffering their acts have caused, even if they maintain their innocence.

But Smith just continued to sit in detached isolation at the end of the defense table, although he fidgeted more than usual Thursday as prosecutors urged the jury to hand down the death penalty.

The only emotion Smith has shown in court was a brief scowl at the families of the victims and a smile and shrug to the jury when the guilty verdicts were read last week.

While Smith was alleged to have only been involved in the ransacking of the home on Terra Linda Avenue and did not carry a gun, Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said he was a key piece in the deadly puzzle.

"But for Smith's willingness to go to the house that day, all four boys would be alive," Daskas told the jury, arguing that without the teenager, the plan could not have been executed.

Testimony at the trial indicated that Smith and three other men believed there was $6,000 in cash and a quantity of drugs in the home shared by four young men near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.

But the bandits found only about $200 and a few pills.

A second defendant, Terrell Cochise Young, 19, is scheduled to stand trial Aug. 30 for his part. The alleged triggerman, 19-year-old Donte Johnson, is set to face a jury in January.

A fourth man alleged in statements to police by Smith and Young to have been the mastermind of the deadly holdup has not yet been charged.

As options to the death penalty, the jury in District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski's courtroom can sentence Smith to life in prison without the possibility of parole or 100 years or life in prison with parole possible after 40 years.

Defense attorney Peter Christiansen Jr. told the jury Thursday that even if the lightest sentence is given it likely would mean Smith would die in prison because the judge has the option of making Smith serve his four murder sentences one after the other.

But Daskas argued that even a life sentence with no possibility of parole "is not punishment for someone who has committed four murders."

"The worst possible crime deserves the worst possible punishment," he said.

Christiansen recalled the emotional testimony from the victims' families and warned the jury that if Smith is executed, the defendant's mother "would get to tell the same stories to her friends."

"It's not the same story," Cynthis Mowen whispered in bitter response from her seat in the courtroom where she and her husband have spent most of the last two weeks. They are the parents of 19-year-old Matthew Mowen, who was killed along with Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, and Peter Talamantez, 17.

Christiansen and his co-counsel, Tony Sgro, repeatedly reminded the jury that Smith never fired a shot and shouldn't be punished with the death penalty as if he had.

"Is Sikia the worst of the worst or did he just hang around with people who are the worst of the worst?" Sgro asked.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon responded that "the worst of the worst found each other and carried out the worst of the worst crimes."

"This case was the worst of the worst in the lives of the four boys and their families," Guymon continued, urging the jury to show no mercy.

But Sgro said, "It doesn't seem fair to take a borderline mentally retarded individual who never fired a shot at anyone and kill him."

Guymon responded that "if there is meaning to the lives of the victims, something more than life without the possibility of parole is appropriate."

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