Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017 | 10:09 a.m.
CARSON CITY — A federal appeals court has denied the petition of Las Vegas killer who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders of his sister and their grandparents.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected a claim by Dante H. Pattison that the prosecution improperly used records at his trial in 2005 to show he was mentally competent to stand trial.
The court said Pattison introduced records at trial that he had spent 20 months in a psychiatric hospital and was insane at the time of the 2001 killing. The prosecution called staff from the mental hospital to testify Pattison was sane when he was released.
The prosecution maintained Pattison, who was 21 years old at the time of the killings, was on drugs when he fatally shot Carrie Adric-Pattison, who was seven months pregnant, and then killed his grandparents Yoshio and Sally Kato in their home.
