New penalty phase requested for Johnson in quadruple murder

Kim Smith

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

Attorneys for a Las Vegas quadruple murderer scheduled to be sentenced to death this morning instead asked the judge to set aside that penalty and hold another penalty phase.

Deputy Special Public Defenders Joseph Sciscento and Dayvid Figler believe District Judge Jeffrey Sobel should cast aside Donte Johnson's sentence because one of the three judges who determined he should die didn't read the entire trial transcript.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon has said he doesn't believe the judges needed to read the entire transcript because the attorneys summed up the aggravating and mitigating factors for them.

In a motion submitted to Sobel, however, the defense attorneys quote a recent Nevada Supreme Court decision that says, "In determining whether mitigating circumstances exist, jurors have an obligation to make an independent and objective analysis of all relevant evidence. Arguments of counsel or a party do not relieve jurors of this responsibility."

Sobel continued this morning's hearing and scheduled arguments on the matter for Oct. 11.

Johnson was convicted by a juror in the Aug. 14, 1999, deaths of Tracey Gorringe, 20, Peter Talamantez, 17, and Matthew Mowen and Jeffrey Biddle, both 19.

However, because the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on Johnson's punishment, a three-judge panel made up of Sobel and District Judges Michael Griffin and Steve Elliot presided over a second punishment phase.

Sciscento and Figler say they don't believe Elliot read all of the transcripts from the guilt phase of the trial.

"As a three-judge panel, each and every member of the sentencing body, therefore, had an absolute obligation to review and consider all evidence from the guilt phase," their motion states. "In fact, on at least two occasions defense counsel requested and made motion for the three-judge panel to do just that."

The defense attorneys noted that although the original jurors found 24 factors that mitigated Johnson's actions, the three judges only found two. Had each of the judges read all of the transcripts, they would have discovered many more mitigators, the attorneys argue.

Sciscento and Figler believe that sentencing Johnson to death without Elliot having read everything would be a "manifest injustice and a clear violation of the law and due process."

Johnson was convicted of killing the four men during a residential robbery he committed along with Sikia Smith and Terrell Young. Smith and Young are serving no-parole life terms.