Former officer’s appeal rejected

Monday, Oct. 8, 2001 | 9:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Former Metro Police Officer Ron Mortensen has lost his latest appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn his murder conviction in the drive-by shooting of a man.

The court turned down Mortensen's motion for a new trial, the second time the court has denied an appeal from the former officer. Mortensen offered what he said was newly discovered evidence.

Mortensen is serving a life term without the possibility of parole for gunning down 21-year-old Daniel Mendoza, who was standing with friends outside an apartment near Paradise Road and Twain Avenue on Dec. 28, 1996.

Mortensen claimed new evidence showed prosecution witness Ruben Ramirez had been involved in drug activity and criminal behavior.

His lawyers argued that evidence was strong circumstantial proof that Ramirez lied and that the group of men gathered in the alley on the night of the shooting was there to distribute methamphetamine.

They continued that there was a logical assumption that the men were armed, leading to the conclusion that the driver of the car, former Metro Officer Chris Brady, fired the shots because an armed man was approaching the car.

Mortensen maintained throughout his trial that Brady was the shooter. The two officers were off duty and had been drinking and cruising the streets, harassing gang members, according to prosecutors. Brady came forward 36 hours after the shooting, saying that Mortensen fired the shot.

The court, in refusing a new trial, said the newly discovered evidence is not direct evidence that someone possessed a gun on the night of the shooting.

"The evidence is too speculative and tenuous to be material in the context of a motion for a new trial," the court said.

The ruling noted the jury was fully aware Ramirez was a gang member and that the gang was involved in drug-related activities. The court said it was "highly speculative" that there would be a different result in a new trial.

In another ruling Friday, the court upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Tony Amati in the 1996 shooting of 22-year-old Keith Dyer and the wounding of Dyer's friend, Stacie Dooley. Police had branded it a thrill killing.

Amati, through his lawyers, claimed in the appeal that the prosecutor's use of the phrase "something wicked" several times in the opening jury statement provided grounds for a new trial. But court said the remarks did not deny Amati a fair trial.

Amati also argued that the admission into evidence at the trial of rap lyrics written by him after the crimes violated his right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment. He maintained the state failed to provide him the lyrics so he could address the issue in his opening statement and he was unable to provide testimony to explain the lyrics.

"We conclude that the relevance of the rap lyrics to the crimes was clearly established," the justices noted, "and thus, admission did not violate any constitutionally protected right."

Amati was sentenced to two terms of life in prison with possibility of parole plus two terms of 96 to 240 months in prison, said the court.