Jennings loses bid for retrial

Bill Gang

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 10:21 a.m.

A bid for a new trial by disgruntled former postal worker Charles Jennings who was convicted of murdering a U.S. Postal Service official that helped fire him has been denied by District Judge Donald Mosley.

The judge then formally sentenced Jennings on Thursday to the life prison sentence without the possibility of parole that had been dictated by the jury that convicted him of murder in December 1997.

In the request for a new trial, Jennings' attorney Mace Yampolsky had argued that prosecutors changed the theory of their case and he was not given sufficient time to prepare a defense.

Yampolsky said that prosecutors originally alleged that Jennings, 42, premeditatedly drove to the post office branch at 1001 E. Sunset Road early on December 19, 1996, to kill James Brown, 59, and perhaps two other executives.

After Jennings testified at the trial that the fatal shot was fired as he and Brown struggled for the gun that he was holding on the postal supervisor, the prosecution argued to the jurors that they could convict Jennings under the alternate theory of "felony murder."

Under Nevada felony murder law, a person can be convicted of first-degree murder if a death occurs during the commission of a violent felony, like kidnapping. Premeditated murder also is first-degree murder.

Yampolsky now will have to seek a new trial through an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Brown's slaying occurred as Jennings was coming down from a four-day crack cocaine binge that had been precipitated by his failure to win back his job through the postal service's administrative appeal process, according to trial testimony.

Jennings, who already has served more than a year behind bars, had become despondent and suicidal because of his job woes, witnesses said.

On the advice of his attorney, Jennings declined to speak at Thursday's sentencing.