Man charged in 23-year-old murder case pleads innocent

Stephen Robert Smith, 57, pleaded innocent Tuesday during his arraignment before Washoe District Judge Jerry Polaha.

Smith is charged with killing 6-year-old Lisa Marie Bonham of Martinez, Calif. The young girl was visiting relatives in Reno when she was abducted from Idlewild Park on Sept. 3, 1977. She disappeared after getting a dollar from her mother to ride the park's roller coaster.

Her clothing was found within hours in a trash bin along Interstate 80. Hikers found her remains two months later in the mountains west of Reno.

Advances in DNA testing and automated access to those records of convicted sex offenders led to Smith's arrest in May after forensic scientists matched his DNA to semen found on the child's clothing.

Smith is being held without bail at the Nevada State Prison instead of the county jail because the alleged killing amounts to a parole violation.

Smith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1969 molestation of two Sparks girls and the attempted assault of a 12-year-old Reno girl.

He had been living in the Reno area since he was paroled in 1976 and most recently worked as a poker dealer at the Peppermill Hotel-Casino.

Charges against Smith allege that he committed murder during the "perpetration of a kidnapping, sexual assault or sexual molestation" of a child under 14.

Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick said Smith cannot be prosecuted for sexual assault or kidnapping because the statute of limitations on those crimes expired long ago.

His office has not decided whether to seek the death penalty on the murder charge.

Jim Duncan, a Reno police detective, said investigators are working with other agencies to determine if Smith may be involved in other unsolved child abductions or killings in Nevada and northern California.

"We are still notifying other agencies within an area we think he had access to and are talking with them about potentials," Duncan said.

"We certainly don't have any information tying him to any other child deaths, but we certainly haven't ruled him out."

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