Homicide case vs. trooper will drag on into next year

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

A homicide case that has yet to go to trial after 11 years of hearings and seven trips to the Nevada Supreme Court was delayed again this morning despite concern from both sides that several witnesses in the case are getting older and declining in health.

District Judge Jeffrey Sobel scheduled former Nevada Highway Patrol trooper George Warner, 63, charged in the 1989 death of his wife in a trailer home fire, to stand trial April 2. Warner's trial was originally scheduled for Oct. 2.

"This is the most ridiculous time before going to trial I've ever seen. To say the case is overdue is to say the least," Sobel said this morning.

Defense attorney John Watkins requested the continuance to give him time to review 13 medical files newly released to him by the state.

Watkins also cited the need to obtain a new fire expert due to the declining health of Ed Smith, 76, the defense's key fire witness. According to an affidavit filed by Carl Duncan, another fire expert in the case, Smith's health declined dramatically over the past two years. He now suffers from short-term memory loss, the report states.

Though state prosecutors filed papers agreeing to the continuance, they cited the declining health of two state witnesses as reason to request videotaping testimony in advance of the trial.

Oscar Prince, an eyewitness to the fire, will turn 80 this month. Evelyn Farr, Warner's former neighbor, will be 86 in December. Warner brought his badly burned wife, Carol, to Farr's home after the couple escaped the fire in their trailer home.

Carol Warner, 54, died in June 1989 after lingering at University Medical Center for 15 days from burns she received over most of her body.

State prosecutors allege that George Warner poured more than a gallon of gasoline over his fifth wife as she slept nude in a living room chair, then set her on fire.

Warner has maintained his innocence, suggesting that their pet dog may have chewed through a lamp cord, sparking the fire.

Prosecutors hope to introduce new evidence before a grand jury stating that Warner's fourth wife was injured in a fire while the pair lived in Pahrump.

The defense contends that a faulty ballast in a fluorescent light caused the fire in that case. They also argue that the incident is irrelevant in the death of Carol Warner.

The case has been dismissed five times over the past decade due to insufficient evidence. Several key pieces of evidence, including a chair and ottoman, carpeting and the trailer home itself, were destroyed after the fire.

Some evidence does remain, however. The defense hopes to conduct DNA tests on a blood stain from the robe allegedly worn by Carol Warner during her retreat to the neighbor's house. The defense also plans to conduct tests Friday on a lamp blamed for the fire.

In July Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger told the court that the state would no longer pursue the death penalty for Warner due to the time the case has taken to get to trial and Warner's age.

Watkins, who has defended Warner for 12 years, believes his client will be acquitted.