Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 12:47 p.m.
The high court ruled Tuesday against a post-conviction petition filed by Ybarra, sentenced to die for the rape and torch murder of Nancy Griffith, 16.
The victim, found wandering on a road near Ely, had been set afire with gasoline after she was assaulted and beaten. She died the next day in a Salt Lake City hospital.
Ybarra's fingerprints were found on a gasoline can at the scene, and bootprints and tire tracks there matched his boots and his truck tires. A Sacramento native, he had just taken a job on an oil rig in Ely when the crime occurred.
On appeal, Ybarra, 45, claimed a lower court erred in dismissing his latest petition without first holding an evidentiary hearing.
But the Supreme Court said Ybarra failed to prove prejudice or show any fundamental miscarriage of justice in his case. As a result, justices said he's procedurally barred from petitioning.
Ybarra argued he had ineffective legal counsel and had an unfair trial because he was on anti-psychotic medications which made him mentally incompetent.
More than 70 other claims, mostly from his previous petitions, were incorporated in the latest plea.
Since his 1981 conviction, Ybarra has filed appeals and petitions in district courts, the state Supreme Court, federal district courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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