High court raises questions about withheld documents in Mazzan case

Brendan Riley

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 2 a.m.

CARSON CITY - State Supreme Court justices raised questions Friday about information cover-up claims in the case of a man sentenced to die for the drug-related murder of a Reno judge's son in 1978.

Justices repeatedly asked a prosecutor about Jack Mazzan's contention that his trial lawyer was denied information that might have helped to clear him in the stabbing death of Richard Minor Jr.

Gary Hatlestad, chief appellate deputy for the Washoe County district attorney's office, insisted that Mazzan's trial lawyer got information on the questioning of other suspects in Minor's death.

But Justice Nancy Becker said it looks like defense lawyers 20 years ago only got a summary and not the full report on what Mazzan's current attorney describes as two out-of-state drug dealers with a motive to kill Minor.

Mazzan lawyer JoNell Thomas, said there's no question that important documents were withheld years ago. She said the files surfaced only a few years ago in response to a subpoena from the state public defender's office.

"This is about making sure we don't execute innocent people," Thomas said in urging the high court to release Mazzan or at least grant him a new trial.

Minor's body was found in his apartment by his father, Richard C. Minor, a justice of the peace at the time and later a district court judge.

Mazzan insisted he had stayed at Minor's apartment the night of the murder because his car wouldn't start, and awoke to see two men who he couldn't identify leave the apartment following the killing.

Defense witnesses at Mazzan's trial testified Minor had been involved in marijuana trafficking and was feared for his safety because of a drug deal gone bad.

In another death penalty case, the Supreme Court was told that Michael Mulder, convicted of murdering a 77-year-old man in Las Vegas, didn't get a fair trial.

Lee McMahon, a deputy public defender, said a trial judge wouldn't certify a defense witness as a fingerprint expert and that hurt efforts to discount prosecution claims that Mulder's prints were found on tape used to bind the victim.

Deputy District Attorney David Roger, who prosecuted Mulder, told the Supreme Court there was no error on the part of the trial judge - and even if there was, it would be harmless given other evidence in the case.

Prosecutors argued during Mulder's trial that he was a drug addict who beat John Ahart to death and stole his car, jewelry and other belongings from his mobile home.

The high court will issue rulings in both capital cases at later dates.