Mother of death row inmate loses in intervention bid

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, June 10, 1998 | 10:06 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A judge ruled Wednesday that the mother of death row inmate Alvaro Calambro can't intervene to stop his scheduled Saturday execution for the 1994 hammer-crowbar murders of two U-Haul workers.

Washoe District Judge Steve Elliott rejected what's known as a "next friend" legal petition filed by Lydia Calambro, who contends her son is borderline mentally retarded and has symptoms of schizophrenia.

Calambro, 25, who isn't trying to stop his execution, slumped in a chair and stared at the floor and courtroom walls during the 35-minute hearing, seemingly oblivious to the arguments made on his behalf by attorney Mike Pescetta.

Pescetta, a deputy federal public defender, told the judge his ruling was "quite wrong," and he was immediately appealing to the Nevada Supreme Court. A hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben also is scheduled.

Pescetta argued that the Nevada Constitution clearly provides for petitions to be filed on behalf of a condemned person. But Deputy Attorney General Terry McCarthy said state law makes no such provision.

Elliott sided with the prosecution argument, saying he had no jurisdiction in the Calambro case because state law says petitions and appeals can be filed only by the condemned convict.

Pescetta says Calambro's mother is trying to intervene because her son is incompetent and doesn't realize what's going on. He says the condemned man has language difficulty, an IQ of 71 and "vampire" fantasies about not really dying if he's executed.

Clarence Crawford of Stagecoach, father of one of the murder victims, sat through the hearing and said afterward that he was upset about the 11th-hour appeal process.

"Who do we appeal to?" asked Crawford, whose wife Betty also was present for the hearing. "We can't appeal to anyone."

Crawford, who plans to witness Calambro's execution, also questioned why tax dollars should be spent in capital cases on public defenders - who he described as "people paid to find loopholes."

Calambro was sentenced to die for the Reno murders of Peggy Crawford, who had a tire iron driven through her skull, and Keith Christopher, whose head was crushed by a hammer.

An accomplice, Duc Huynh, who had been fired from his job at the U-Haul center just before the murders, also got the death sentence but hanged himself at Ely State Prison.

After the killings, Huynh and Calambro fled and were arrested following a crime spree that began in Sacramento and ended with a high-speed highway chase, the kidnapping of a woman security guard in Los Angeles, and a 9 1/2 -hour standoff.

Calambro's family has maintained that Huynh was responsible for the murders. Family members also said Calambro, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1982, had no earlier record of serious crimes and managed to get along until meeting Huynh, who they described as violent and mentally disturbed.