Panel to decide on death penalty

Kim Smith

Thursday, June 29, 2000 | 10:02 a.m.

Two Northern Nevada judges will join District Judge Jeffrey Sobel of Las Vegas to decide if the killer of four young Las Vegas men should receive the death penalty.

District Judges Michael Griffin and Steve Elliot will serve on a sentencing panel with Sobel July 24-26 as the fate of Donte Johnson is weighed.

A jury two weeks ago could not reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty or life in prison. The judges will rehear the punishment phase in Johnson's case.

According to court records, Johnson, Sikia Smith and Terrell Young went to the home of some acquaintances on Aug. 14, 1998, under the mistaken assumption they would find $10,000 and a large amount of drugs.

They duct-taped four young men, laid them on the floor and spent an hour ransacking the house before Johnson became upset with one of the men and shot all four in the back of the head.

Killed were Tracey Gorringe, 20, Peter Talamantez, 17, and Jeffrey Biddle and Matt Mowen, both 19.

Smith and Young are both serving life sentences in the murders.

Deputy Special Public Defenders Dayvid Figler and Joe Sciscento asked jurors to spare Johnson's life, saying that there is a chance he was not the shooter. They also presented evidence that Johnson grew up in squalor in south-central Los Angeles with an abusive father and drug-addicted mother.

Prosecutors Gary Guymon and Robert Daskas said all of the evidence points to Johnson as the gunman. They also argued that the circumstances of Johnson's youth in no way outweigh his actions the night the four young men died.