December 24, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

New trial ordered in 1998 killings

Glenn Puit
By GLENN PUIT
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Victims' families reacted with dismay Thursday to a Nevada Supreme Court decision that granted a new trial to a man convicted of killing four young men in 1998.
The justices ruled that District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski did not adequately probe an ongoing conflict between Terrell Young and his court-appointed attorneys, Lew Wolfbrandt and Marty Hastings.
"I think the people at the Supreme Court should be randomly checked for drugs, because this was a heinous crime," said Juanita Aguilar, 47, the mother of victim Peter Talamantez, 17. "Four boys were killed, and this goes on and on for the families when these kinds of things happen."
David Mowen, father of 19-year-old victim Matthew Mowen, lamented that his family will have to endure another trial.
"It's been 2,323 days and it just never seems to end," Mowen said. "I'm very upset about it, very angry with it. ... I just don't want to go through another trial again. It's been over six years, and I haven't had an opportunity to really heal yet."
On appeal, Young contended his attorneys rarely visited him in jail and did not conduct an adequate investigation before his trial.
In their ruling, the justices said Pavlikowski should have more vigorously inquired about the differences between Young and his lawyers.
"People have a fundamental right to a fair trial, and in this case, he was denied that right," Young's appellate attorney, Karen Connolly, said Thursday.
In 1999, Young was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in the deaths of Mowen, Talamantez, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, and Tracey Gorringe, 20.
The four were bound with duct tape and shot in the head during a robbery at an east Las Vegas home in August 1998.
Authorities said the robbers had hoped to find large amounts of money and drugs. Instead, they netted less than $300, a videocassette recorder, a Nintendo game player and a pager.
Young, now 25, was one of three men charged in the slayings. Sikia Smith is serving life in prison.
Triggerman Donte Johnson was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned that sentence in December 2002 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled juries should make such decisions. He is awaiting resentencing.
Young's September 1999 trial was filled with bizarre, sometimes violent, developments.
During jury selection, Young cleared the defense table of all documents, overturned the prosecution table and tossed a chair at the jury box.
He was fitted with a stun belt when he returned to court. He then spat on his attorneys and was subdued by a jolt of electricity.
Two weeks later, as the jury forewoman read the guilty verdicts, Young berated her after a nervous smile played across her face. "What's so funny about it?" he demanded, prompting the woman to cry so hard she couldn't continue for about a minute.