Panel of judges to decide on penalty in woman’s killing

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001 | 11:06 a.m.

A three-judge panel will be deciding the fate of a Las Vegas man convicted last week of strangling an elderly woman to death three years ago.

Termaine Lytle, 28, was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, conspiracy and forgery in connection with the death of Selma Adelman, 84.

The same jury, however, could not agree on what his punishment should be, and District Judge Donald Mosley declared a mistrial Tuesday afternoon. Because prosecutors were seeking death, a three-judge panel must now decide Lytle's fate.

The panel will be made up of Mosley and two out-of-county judges who are picked at random and whose schedules can accommodate the hearing -- the date of which is expected to be scheduled today.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas told jurors during opening statements in the trial that Lytle and Robert Walker decided to rob Adelman because Lytle was short on rent money.

Daskas said that Adelman was likely knitting late into the evening of July 26, 1997, when Lytle and Walker slipped into her apartment through an unlocked sliding glass door.

The pair dragged Adelman off her couch into her bedroom where they strangled her with a coaxial cable. They ransacked her apartment, stealing a microwave, a radio, credit cards and a checkbook, Daskas said.

Adelman's daughter found her mother's body a couple of days later, Daskas said.

The pair were tracked down because they ended up using Adelman's checks and credit cards, Daskas said.

Walker entered a plea agreement and is serving a 20-year-to-life sentence.

Defense attorney Lizzie Hatcher told the jurors Walker was solely to blame for the woman's death.

Daskas said Tuesday afternoon that at one point the jurors voted 11-1 to put Lytle to death. When the jury was sent home, the vote was 9-3 for the death penalty.

The last time a three-judge panel was needed it was in the Donte Johnson murder case in July. The judges decided Johnson should die for his participation in a quadruple murder.