O.J. case pops up again as LV murderer appeals

Bill Gang

Thursday, Nov. 13, 1997 | 11:11 a.m.

The 1996 trial of James Chappell had marked similarities to the O.J. Simpson case except that the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Chappell is a black man who killed his white girlfriend as she had broken up with him and began seeing someone else. Deborah Panos was slashed and stabbed repeatedly and left in a pool of blood.

At an appeal hearing Wednesday before the Nevada Supreme Court, there were allegations of racial misconduct because blacks on the jury panel were deleted by prosecutors, leaving an all-white jury.

Simpson's name even came up in trial testimony about a threat to kill 26-year-old Deborah Panos that was overheard by a friend of the victim's. The witness had testified that she heard Chappell say, "If you don't quit messing around with other men, I'm going to do an O.J. Simpson ..."

Deputy Public Defender Howard Brooks charged that prosecutors "played the race card" by repeatedly referring to the Simpson remark before the white jury.

Deputy District Attorney Abbi Silver countered that there were legitimate reasons for excluding the two blacks from the jury.

That prompted a comment from Justice Charles Springer that the high court frequently hears similar complaints and responses in cases coming from Clark County courts.

There is no question that Chappell brutally killed his girlfriend just hours after he was mistakenly released from jail following his conviction for domestic battery -- Chappell admitted that.

The problem, Brooks told the Supreme Court, was that the trial was so unfair it resulted in a first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty, rather than a milder sentence.

He is seeking a new trial for the admitted cocaine addict who didn't work and had sold his own children's furniture and diapers to buy drugs.

Brooks argued that the appropriate conviction would have been voluntary manslaughter or second-degree murder because the 26-year-old victim was stabbed to death "in a fit of rage" after he learned she was having an affair.

Deputy District Attorney Abbi Silver countered that Panos had gone to court to testify against him on the domestic violence charge and had told friends she feared he would kill her for that act of betrayal.

She was preparing to leave the mobile home they had shared when he broke in through a window and killed her, pausing deliberately afterward to wash his hands and gather some of her possessions to sell.

Brooks also argued that a new trial is warranted because the trial judge permitted legally impermissible character evidence and testimony about past domestic violence episodes at the trial.

"The walls were painted with his character," he said, forcing Chappell to take the stand to defend himself. "But the jury couldn't consider his words because of the attacks on his character."

He said that after presenting the character evidence at trial, Silver told the jury that "this is a terrible person and a terrible person commits murder, not manslaughter."

Justice Cliff Young said Brooks "made a compelling argument."

"You have an uphill battle with me," Young told Silver. "I worry whether you went too far and denied this man a fair trial."

Silver argued that the domestic violence evidence was justified because the slaying of Panos on Aug. 31, 1995, was "domestic violence that escalated to murder."

"You'd think this was the O.J. case," she said in response to Brooks. "It wasn't. It was the case of a woman murdered by a man who happened to be black."

Panos died from 13 stab wounds, including 10 in a cluster around her neck and upper chest that resulted in three major blood vessels being severed.

The attack was so violent that the knife penetrated the bones of her spine.

Panos, whose body was found at her home in the Ballerina Mobile Home park near Lamb Boulevard and Bonanza Road, also had bruises and a broken nose as a result of the domestic violence incidents.

Chappell had been in the city jail on a domestic violence charge, but was released into the custody of Nevada Parole and Probation Department officers shortly before the slaying.

Rather than keeping him in their custody, officers allowed him to walk unsupervised to a drug treatment center for an intake evaluation.

But instead, he sought out the woman with whom he had three children, climbed through a window at her home and killed her.