Manley’s second trial under way

Jace Radke

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

Once a death-row inmate, Charles Manley sat in the Clark County Courthouse Thursday flanked by his lawyers as he went to trial for the second time in the 1995 execution-style shooting death of his girlfriend.

The prosecutors and Manley's defense attorneys made their opening remarks to the jury in Judge Joseph Pavlikowski's courtroom with defense attorneys saying that Roxanne Logan's death was an accident.

"The prosecutors have umpteen theories of what happened," Manley's attorney David Schieck told the jury. "We have only one theory, that it was an accident. The prosecution will present to you a lot of extraneous information, and you'll need to focus in on what the question really is, whether or not this was an accident."

Manley was given the death sentence after being convicted of the first-degree murder of Logan, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the conviction, saying that Manley's attorney-client privilege was violated during his first trial.

That decision has taken Manley off death row and forced prosecutors into trying to prove him guilty for a second time of Logan's March 12, 1995, homicide.

Testimony will show that Logan, an elementary schoolteacher, had decided to end her relationship with Manley, who she was supporting and had purchased a truck for, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said.

"The evidence will show that Roxanne was going to make him move out of her house, that she had bought him a truck and a gun and was sending him to contractor's school," Laurent said. "He was going to lose his livelihood."

After the shooting, Manley fled to California in the truck that Logan had given him and talked to an attorney before surrendering to Las Vegas authorities. Just before his first trial started Manley jumped bail and fled to New Jersey, and was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted."

The defense told the jury Thursday that the facts would show Logan coming out of the home's bedroom with a handgun wrapped in a towel, and Manley, afraid for her safety, attempting to grab the gun from her and accidentally triggering the weapon.

Laurent opened his argument with the words of convicted felon O.K. Brown, who Laurent says had a conversation with Manley while they were both incarcerated.

Manley reportedly said to Brown, "She wouldn't give the money back. She said she was going to go to the police, so I pushed her down and shot the bitch," Laurent told the jury.

Brown is among more than a dozen witnesses who prosecutors plan to call in the case, including Logan's friends, a Metro Police detective, a bartender at the Sam's Town hotel-casino dance club where Logan and Manley met and Manley's ex-wife and daughter, Laurent said.

Both sides will call medical experts to talk about the gunshot wound.

The trial is scheduled to continue today with the prosecution calling more witnesses.

Jace Radke is a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-2318 or by e-mail at jace@lasvegassun.com.