High court no help to murder defendant

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

An emergency motion filed with the Nevada Supreme Court that could have halted the murder trial of Terrell Cochise Young has been rejected, as was a similar motion filed in federal court.

The motion, filed by attorney Ben Childs, who was hired by the defendant's family, contends that Young's constitutional rights have been violated and Nevada Supreme Court rules governing death penalty trials have been ignored.

Childs and his associate, Terence Dickinson, alleged that court-appointed attorneys Lew Wolfbrandt and Martin Hastings have not done everything they should to represent Young on the charges that could carry a death sentence if he is convicted.

But District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski, who is presiding over the trial, has repeatedly rejected similar legal challenges filed by Young to have his lawyers replaced.

Young, who is the second of three defendants charged in the execution-style murders of four young men during a robbery a year ago, has protested Pavlikowski's rulings by throwing tantrums in court.

He scattered documents and overturned a table Wednesday morning, and that afternoon he spit on both of his lawyers, resulting in him getting zapped into submission by a stun-belt he was forced to wear as a security measure.