No bail release - for now - for former Nevada death-row inmate

Brendan Riley

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 2:18 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Bail arrangements fell apart Thursday for Jack Mazzan, still in jail even though his death sentence for the drug-related murder of a judge's son was erased in January.

While efforts continue to free him on bail, Mazzan - who spent 20 years on Nevada's death row - will remain behind bars for now. He faces a July 10 retrial in Washoe County District Court.

"He's disappointed. It's tough to get your hopes up that high," Mazzan's lawyer, JoNell Thomas, said after a brief court hearing Thursday when she disclosed a friend of Mazzan's had decided not to put up her property to cover his $100,000 bail.

"Certainly I had encouraged him in thinking he'd be getting out," Thomas added. "But he's OK. He's been waiting for this for a long time."

"Jack certainly appreciates that the primary part of the case is winning the case," Thomas said. "Bail is an important issue. ... But it's most important that we win at trial and that he's released after trial."

Mazzan, 53, had been before District Judge Peter Breen four times since last Friday - each time thinking he'd soon be on the streets while awaiting retrial.

Each time there were problems involving the property bond that Lavonia Young had posted. Finally, she decided late Wednesday to withdraw the bond.

"It's obvious she was aggravated with the process," said Thomas, noting that Young owned the property in Virginia City and was upset that she still had to disclose details of her will, a trust set up for her children and other information.

A requirement by Breen that Young give a copy of her will to prosecutors was particularly upsetting, said Thomas, adding that from Young's perspective, she was told to provide the document "to the people who are trying to kill your friend."

Young, whose daughter helped Mazzan come to Reno about 23 years ago, had said she offered to post her property for his bail because she believes he's innocent.

The Nevada Supreme Court on Jan. 27 reversed Mazzan's conviction for the 1978 murder of Richard Minor Jr. He had been arrested shortly after the killing and was convicted of first-degree murder in 1979 before being sent to death row in January 1980.

In reversing Mazzan's conviction, the Supreme Court criticized prosecutors for failing to give the defense information about other suspects - alleged drug-dealers who hadn't been paid for drugs supplied to Minor - that might have cleared Mazzan.

Minor's body was found in his apartment by his father, then Reno Justice of the Peace Richard C. Minor. Judge Minor, now retired, has said he always doubted the state's theory that one person, acting alone, was responsible for the killing. But he believes Mazzan had some role in the murder.