Ex-trooper’s case about wife’s death returns to high court

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999 | 9:49 a.m.

A decade after he was first accused of murdering his wife, former Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper George Warner sat in Nevada Supreme Court chambers quietly watching what could be the final chapter in his roller-coaster ride through the justice system.

Deputy District Attorney Clark Peterson was asking the panel of justices Monday to reinstate the murder charges against the 61-year-old Warner.

The charges had been dismissed a year ago by District Judge Jeff Sobel, who concluded that the state's failure to preserve a key piece of evidence was going to prevent Warner from ever getting a fair trial.

At issue was a chair and ottoman where Carol Warner, his fifth wife, was sitting on June 5, 1989, when a fire erupted in the couple's mobile home. The 54-year-old woman died 15 days later of burns over 85 percent of her body.

Prosecutors contend George Warner doused her with a flammable fluid as she slept and set her ablaze.

Although pieces of the chair were taken and tested, the chair was lost in the demolition of the charred hulk that once was the Warners' home. Amid criticism from Warner's lawyers, then-Deputy District Attorney Dan Seaton downplayed the importance of the chair by conceding the tests showed no flammable fluids were present.

Fire investigators, however, still maintained that burn patterns indicated a flammable fluid had been used around the chair.

Arguing before the high court Monday, Warner's attorney, John Watkins, said that tests on the chair's remains could have proved Warner's innocence.

He said the padding of some chairs can actually melt during fires and that the resulting liquid can make it appear that an accelerant was used to fuel the fire.

Watkins said that speculating about that possibility to a jury at a trial pales in comparison to presenting actual test results and prevents Warner from having a fair trial.

This is the second time the high court has addressed the issue of the missing evidence.

In 1995 then-District Judge Myron Leavitt threw out the case because prosecutors had not preserved the chair in the aftermath of the fire in the Desert Inn Mobile Home Estates, 3579 Estes Park Drive, near Desert Inn Road and Nellis Boulevard.

The district attorney's office appealed the decision.

In 1996 the Nevada Supreme Court reinstated the murder case, ruling that Warner failed to prove how having the lost evidence would help his case.

The case was sent to Sobel for a trial, but in 1998 Sobel also dismissed the charges, indicating that information from prosecutors at the earlier appeal hearing may have been misleading.

The high court decision expected in several weeks should resolve the issue.

If the court favors Warner, he will be a free man. If not, there will be a trial for the man who spent nine years as a highway patrolman.

One thing that bothered prosecutors was the fact that in 1981 Warner's fourth wife, Nancy, was slightly injured in a mobile home fire at the couple's residence in Pahrump.

She allegedly told authorities the fire occurred following an argument with Warner.

Warner noted that investigators said the fire started from a defective lamp and that he and his wife continued to live together for several months after the incident until he decided to get a divorce.

He contends a lamp probably also caused the fire that killed his fifth wife.

Warner said he was asleep at the time of the 1989 fire and was awakened by a scream. He said smoke filled the bedroom, making it impossible to see anything.

He said he pushed on a window and fell through to the outside and his wife came out the same way a moment later.