Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the appeal of a 19-year-old killer from Las Vegas who said he was pressured into pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty.
Kevin Houser, through his lawyers, claimed he didn't have enough time to consider whether to enter his plea and he was threatened that he would get the death penalty if he didn't plead guilty to first-degree murder.
Houser, who was 16 at the time, and his co-defendant Devan Rivera, also 16, drove Ismael Arevinas into the desert where he was shot to death. Rivera, also serving a life term, was angry because Arevinas reportedly "hit" on his girlfriend.
The Supreme Court said there had been negotiations on the plea almost from the time Houser was arrested in December 1996. Houser, the court said, was familiar with the process because he had entered a plea in another cases.
"The fact that the appellant risked receiving the death penalty had he gone to trial does not mean his plea was coerced," the court said. "Rather, that is a consequence of his crime and shows that he achieved a favorable plea agreement given the seriousness of that crime."
The court said Houser and his mother went over the plea negotiation document "line by line" and he clearly understood the rights he was waiving and the consequences of his plea.
In another case, the court dismissed the appeal of Rex L. Arthur, sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for the fatal shooting of Lawrence Sharleville at the Las Casitas Mobile Home Park.
Lawyers for Arthur said he was not competent when he pleaded guilty because he was on medication and because prior drug abuse had impaired his mental abilities.
District Judge Kathy Hardcastle held several hearings in Las Vegas on the mental state of Arthur and whether he was competent when he pleaded guilty.
The Supreme Court said a plea of guilty by a person under the influence of drugs is not necessarily invalid. The influence of the drugs, the court said, must be "such as to affect the defendant's competency to stand trial or his capacity to understand the nature and consequence of his plea."
Six experts, including a psychiatrist, a medical doctor and four psychologists agreed Arthur was competent to stand trial or enter a plea. Two of them indicated Arthur appeared to be exaggerating his symptoms in an effort to appear incompetent.
Arthur, who was not living with his wife, tried to force his way into her locked mobile home. He fired three shots through the dead bolt lock, and once inside he fired three more shots, killing Sharleville, who was trying to call police. Sharleville was a neighbor who had asked Arthur's wife to accompany him on some errands.
The court also dismissed the third post-conviction petition of Robert Ybarra, sentenced to death for the killing of 16-year-old Nancy Griffin in September 1979 outside Ely. She was taken into the desert, raped and set on fire. She was found wandering naked and identified her assailant before she died the following day.
The court said Ybarra, who turns 46 this month, raised many of the same issues in prior appeals. It said he has failed to "demonstrate a fundamental miscarriage of justice."
Ybarra claimed, among other things, that his attorney was ineffective at trial; mitigating evidence was not presented; an insanity defense should have been considered; and the trial attorney failed to object to Ybarra taking anti-psychotic medication during the trial.
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