Monday, April 13, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.
For nearly a decade, a Las Vegas man with a history of mental illness avoided responsibility for the execution-style slaying of the 38-year-old woman whose home he had shared.
Roderick Abeyta, 45, stood trial in 1996 and was convicted by a District Court jury which then decided he should receive the death penalty for his brutal crime.
When an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court failed early this year, Abeyta -- citing his "beliefs as a Christian" -- wrote a letter to District Judge Jeff Sobel sacrificing his rights to any future appeals and with it his life.
In the letter Abeyta also confessed his guilt to the shooting death of Donna Martin and apologized to the Martin family.
"I am truly sorry for my actions of what I had done to the Martin family," he wrote. "And, thus, I am deserving to be held accountable for my crime against society and to uphold the judgment of God."
Abeyta, who is housed on the Ely State Prison's death row, also apologized to Sobel.
"I want to apologize to you, this court, for the many years that I troubled this court (trying) to avoid the accountability for the murder of Donna Martin, which I in fact committed on Oct. 21, 1989," Abeyta stated.
Abeyta wrote that he is aware of his constitutional rights and knows his opportunities for a protracted appeal process through court-appointed lawyers, and is willing to sacrifice all that.
To Deputy Federal Public Defender Michael Pescetta, that is a red flag requiring his office to get involved whether the convicted killer asks for help.
"Someone who wants to commit suicide by the judicial process is deranged enough for us to step in," he said, adding that in every case where that office has done so, the defendant has changed his mind.
Pescetta said that sometimes something "sets off" a killer -- those who feel guilty or sorry -- and "their acting out often takes the form of volunteering."
"Usually it blows over," he said, noting that several death row inmates who pleaded guilty and asked for the death penalty are now fighting execution.
In Abeyta's case, trial testimony indicated he and his half-brother, Casey Korsmo, broke into Martin's home at 740 N. Ninth St. with the intent to steal but before looting the house, Abyta put his gun to the back of the woman's head and fired two shots.
Her body was found four days later.
"I am deserving to be held accountable for my crime against society and to uphold the judgment of God."
Abeyta wrote directly to the judge because he is between lawyers. The court-ordered appointment of attorney Laura Melia for the direct appeal ended when that appeal was denied. A new lawyer for the expected next round of appeals has not been appointed and Abeyta indicated he doesn't want one. Melia no longer is practicing law in Nevada.
"I informed Ms. Melia that I would not be seeking any further representation or an appeal to a higher court," Abeyta wrote.
"I have been awaiting notification for a date to have the execution warrant imposed in my case," he stated to the judge. "I am asking for a status report of the execution warrant and any measures to have my sentence imposed."
Sobel said that when the district attorney's office submits documents to set an execution date, he likely will sign them. The judge said he has no intention of appointing a new attorney for Abeyta when not asked to nor delaying the killer's date with destiny.
But the federal public defender's office, which defends most of the death row inmates through the federal appeal process, is expected to try intervening in the case.
Pescetta's perception that death row inmates who choose to give up their appeals are "deranged" may be bolstered by Abeyta's past.
He was arrested three days after Martin's body was found but wasn't convicted until 1996. In between, he was determined to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and sent to state mental facility at Lake's Crossing, near Sparks.
After a variety of delays and further competency testing, Abeyta finally stood trial in March 1996. By then, Korsmo had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a plea bargain for his role and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He will be eligible for release in 2003.
Abeyta is one of 90 killers on death row.
If he submits to execution by lethal injection, Abeyta will be the first since Richard Moran in 1996, who didn't go willingly.
Moran was the first person to be executed since June 1990.
Virtually all the other death row inmates -- some of them who have been there since 1979 -- have appeals that are weaving their way through the state or federal court systems.
Glen Whorton, spokesman for the state prison, said after Moran's death, "Executions are a rare event here."
The Moran execution was the first time a 1995 state law came into play, allowing victims' relatives to view the process.
Bill and Charles Vandervoort, brothers-in-law to Moran, were in the front row watching him die, although they were not relatives of the victims that led Moran to the execution chamber.
Moran killed his wife, Linda Vandervoort, but received life in prison for that crime.
He was sentenced to death for the murders of Sandra Devere and Russell Rhodes in a Las Vegas bar during an $800 robbery in 1984.
Devere's sister also attended the execution and several times as he was being strapped to the table, Moran mouthed the words "I'm sorry," to the sister and the two brothers.
Charles Vandervoort said the execution is "the best closure I will get. But I'm still missing a sister."
(SUN reporter Cy Ryan contributed to this report)
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