Death sentences upheld in two northern Nevada cases

Brendan Riley

Saturday, June 10, 2000 | 8:42 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Death sentences ordered for a North Carolina jail escapee convicted of killing a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper and for a man who murdered his 3-year-old stepdaughter in Reno have been upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court.

The court on Friday ruled against Michael Sonner, sentenced to death by injection for the murder of Trooper Carlos Borland. Sonner at first said he wanted to die for the shooting near Lovelock in 1993, but later appealed.

Borland was shot in the head after he stopped Sonner on Interstate 80 for failing to pay for gasoline at a truck stop.

After escaping from a Lexington, N.C., jail, Sonner stole a car and began a cross-country crime spree that included two truck stop killings in Vega, Texas, a few days before he left Borland dying along the interstate.

On appeal, Sonner said his trial counsel was ineffective. He also argued that his trial judge had a conflict because of a prior attorney-client relationship with the prosecutor.

District Judge Richard Wagner named Brent Kolvet as prosecutor on the same day he formally dropped Kolvet as his personal lawyer in a civil action stemming from a taxpayer protest case.

The Supreme Court said the conflict issue had been considered and rejected in a previous appeal and wouldn't be considered again, and the ineffective counsel argument lacked merit given the aggravating circumstances of the murder and Sonner's extensive criminal record.

The Supreme Court also refused to cancel the death sentence of Carlos Gutierrez, who admitted beating his stepdaughter to death in Reno.

Gutierrez pleaded guilty and got the death sentence for the killing of Mailin Stafford. The child's mother, Tara Gutierrez, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for felony child neglect.

The child was first reported missing by her mother in June 1994, but two days later the couple led authorities to the ravine where her bruised and battered body was found.

On appeal, Gutierrez claimed his plea was invalid and that his trial lawyer and his attorney for an earlier appeal were ineffective. But justices said none of the claims warranted relief.