DA’s office replaced for retrial in murder

Bill Gang

Tuesday, June 8, 1999 | 9:45 a.m.

The district attorney's office has been disqualified from the murder retrial of William "Chris" Shoels, whose conviction for shooting a basketball teammate over a bad pass was tossed out by the Nevada Supreme Court.

District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski on Wednesday will appoint a special prosecutor to pursue the case that had resulted in a life prison term without the possibility of parole for the 26-year-old Las Vegas man.

The problem is that David Wall was a public defender for Shoels' trial but is now a deputy district attorney for the unit that was to prosecute the defendant.

The death penalty was rejected by the jury that convicted Shoels. In the new trial the death penalty will not be an option because of a Nevada law that states that a punishment from a new trial can't exceed the punishment at the first trial.

Shoels, who has a history of juvenile and adult robberies that included the use of his .25-caliber pistol, was on probation and house arrest at the time of the fatal basketball game on Aug. 25, 1993.

Shoels was convicted of murdering 31-year-old Gregory Hayes with a shot to the back from a .25-caliber pistol he had smuggled into the Chuck Minker Sports Complex, 275 N. Mojave Road. The two had been teammates before the argument over the bad pass resulted in Shoels quitting the game.

Hayes threatened to shoot Shoels, but it was Shoels who had concealed a pistol and used it.

Defense attorneys portrayed Hayes as a bully with a history of violence and that Shoels feared him despite being 6 inches taller and considerably heavier than the victim.

In an unsworn statement at his penalty hearing in 1995, Shoels conceded that he had been involved in drugs and violence but had matured during his two years in jail awaiting trial.