Friday, April 3, 1998 | 10:35 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The state Supreme Court, reversing its own 2-year-old decision Thursday, returned to law enforcement the power to seize property from drug suspects.
The court had ruled unconstitutional in 1996 a state law allowing a home be forfeited in a drug sales case. The decision stemmed from the case of Noah, Lula and David Levingston and Rita Dennis who had pleaded guilty to drug charges.
District Judge Mills Lane ordered the house forfeited, but the Supreme Court said the forfeiture amounted to double jeopardy since the defendants were being punished twice for the same crime. The court held part of the Nevada law was unconstitutional.
The court, at the request of the Washoe County district attorney's office, had agreed to re-examine the case where sheriff's deputies found drugs and paraphernalia in a Reno home and there was indication cocaine was being sold on the premises.
The court, citing a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Thursday held the forfeiture was a civil action, not a criminal punishment.
"The forfeiture served nonpunitive goals," said the Nevada court. "It prevented the further illicit use of the house, thereby ensuring that the house would not be used again for illegal purposes and that Rita and David particularly would not profit from illegal conduct."
The court said, however, the District Court should hold a hearing to review whether the forfeiture was an excessive fine for the four owners.
In other double jeopardy case, the court ruled that a man arrested for drunken driving in Reno could lose his driver's license and also be criminally convicted. It overturned the decision of former District Judge Jerry Whitehead who had dismissed the criminal charges against Daniel Lomas after his license had been suspended for 90 days.
The court said, "Our prior holdings make it clear that the Nevada Legislature intended driver's license revocation proceedings to be a civil rather than criminal." It said there is little evidence that the revocation is so punitive to make it equivalent to a criminal punishment.
It said that "by suspending the licenses of drivers who pose a danger to their own safety and to that of others, the statutes reveal a rational remedial, or civil deterrent purpose, rather than a retributive or criminal purpose."
In other decisions, the court:
--upheld the first degree murder conviction and death sentence for William P. Castillo who used a crow bar to beat to death 86-year-old Isabelle Berndt in her Las Vegas home and then burglarize it in December 1995. To cover up any evidence, he set the home on fire. The court rejected arguments by lawyers of Castillo that seven errors were made during the trial and penalty hearing. It said the death sentence "imposed upon Castillo was not the product of passion, prejudice, or any arbitrary factor nor was it excessive in light of the gravity of the crime and the defendant."
--affirmed the first degree murder conviction of Jonathan Daniels, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting two convenience store clerks during a robbery in Las Vegas. Daniels was convicted of killing Nicasio Dias and June Frye at an AM/PM Mini Market in January 1995. The court rejected the argument that Daniels' constitutional rights were violated when he was prosecuted for first degree murder, despite his claim of voluntary intoxication.
--upheld the first degree murder conviction and death sentence for Michael H. Sonner, found guilty of the fatal shooting of Nevada Highway Patrolman Carlos Borland about 23 miles west of Lovelock in November 1993. Borland had stopped Sonner's vehicle after Sonner had driven away from a gas station without paying. The court had granted a rehearing on its previous decision affirming the conviction and penalty. In the new decision Thursday, it made technical changes to the counts not involving murder.
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