Death sentence for Vegas cabbie killer upheld by U.S. Supreme Court

Monday, May 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The high court ruled without comment against William Lester Witter, 33, sentenced to death by injection for the fatal stabbing of James Cox in Las Vegas in 1993.

Cox died trying to stop Witter from assaulting his wife in a casino employee parking lot. Kathryn Cox testified that after killing her husband, Witter tried again to assault her only to be thwarted by security.

During Witter's trial, Las Vegas psychologist Lewis Etcoff testified that Witter came from "one of the most dysfunctional families I can remember studying."

Etcoff cited "criminality, enormous drug and alcohol abuse, neglect, physical violence and sexual abuse by an uncle" as factors that molded a boy into a man capable of great anger and violence.

"He would have been better off with no parents than the parents he had," Etcoff said, adding that the family was "the quintessential environment that would produce someone who kills."

But Etcoff also said Witter knew right from wrong when he began the attack on Kathryn Cox, and concluded that Witter's upbringing and alcohol and drug abuse also didn't excuse his crimes.

Witter's mother was an alcoholic and heroin addict who often neglected her four children and had wild parties in the home, including having sex in front of the youngsters.

Witter's father spent much of the defendant's formative years in prison on robbery and rape charges.