No retrial planned in Weinstein case

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

The Clark County district attorney's office has dismissed charges against a Las Vegas man whose accessory-to-murder conviction in a high-profile case was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court last year.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said if he took Robert Wayne Jones to trial again the results would likely be the same -- Jones would be convicted of accessory to murder in the July 1996 death of Bruce Weinstein and be sentenced to two to five years.

Jones has already served more than three years of that sentence, Kane said. To try the case again would be impractical.

Amy DeChant, 53, was convicted in 1998 of murdering Weinstein, her wealthy 46-year-old bookmaker boyfriend.

Prosecutors alleged that Jones supplied DeChant the murder weapon and helped her clean up Weinstein's bloody home.

DeChant had claimed that Weinstein was killed by mobsters, who allowed her to live on the condition that she clean the murder scene and keep quiet.

The Nevada Supreme Court overturned the pair's conviction, saying a homicide detective should not have been allowed to testify that DeChant's mob story was a "fairy tale."

Rather than face a second jury, DeChant recently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She will receive a 10-to-25-year sentence on Sept. 20.