Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.
A 25-year-old man who will defend himself at his retrial in the execution-style slaying of four young men in August 1998 said prosecutors are "up to their dirty tricks again."
At a hearing Monday, Terrell Young accused prosecutors of tampering with a taped statement he made to police, claiming prosecutors had erased two to three hours.
Young said either prosecutor Robert Daskas or former prosecutor and current public defender Gary Guymon altered the tapes so no one could hear "me invoking my right to silence" and "the police telling me they were going to kill me, choke me."
Young said if the original tapes were listened to, "we can see what I'm saying is true."
District Judge Nancy Saitta ordered Daskas to provide copies of the original tapes to Young so he could review them at the Clark County Detention Center, where he is currently housed.
Young begrudgingly accepted Saitta's ruling, but said if the tapes came from the district attorney's office "the missing portions will still be missing."
Saitta told him he would have to show the "unintelligible portions are so substantial that it essentially renders the entire tape worthless" for the judge to rule them inadmissible at trial.
Young was convicted in 1999 in the killings of 20-year-old Tracey Gorringe, 20-year-old Peter Talamantez, 19-year-old Matthew Mowen and 19-year-old Jeffrey Biddle, but the Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new trial, saying District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski failed to properly address Young's contention that there was animosity and a lack of communication between Young and his court-appointed lawyer, Lew Wolfbrandt.
Young's retrial is scheduled for Feb. 10, 2006.
Prosecutors contend Young went to the victims' home with Donte Johnson and Sikia Smith. They said that after tying up the victims, Johnson, Young and Smith ransacked the house, never finding the money and drugs Johnson believed would be there.
A jury sentenced Johnson to death for the killings in May. He had previously been convicted by a jury and sentenced to death row by a three-judge panel for the murders, but the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled that only juries can levy the death penalty in such cases. That ruling resulted in Johnson's new penalty hearing.
Smith was also convicted for his role in the killings and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At Monday's hearing Young was unsuccessful in getting four counts of kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon dismissed.
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