Brother convicted of second-degree murder

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002 | 9:02 a.m.

A Las Vegas man could receive as much as a life sentence after being convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon in the death of his brother.

Daniel Jones, 23, had claimed that the fatal stabbing of his 20-year-old brother, Steven, in April 2001 was a tragic accident.

Jones told jurors his brother lunged at him during an argument, causing him to stumble backward over an open dishwasher door. He said that caused the knife he was holding to plunge into his brother's heart.

Following the verdict, defense attorney Frank Kocka said, "There is a difference between legal justice and moral justice and moral justice was not done today."

Prosecutors Marc DiGiacomo and Bernie Zadrowski had asked the jurors to convict Jones of either first or second-degree murder.

Although Jones had earlier entered a plea agreement that would have guaranteed him a six to 15-year prison sentence, he withdrew his plea, preferring to take his chances with a jury.

Jones now faces either a 20 to 50-year sentence or a life sentence with parole possible after 20 years.

Jones, who was taken into custody immediately after the verdict, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 3 by District Judge John McGroarty.

The trial included the highly emotional testimony of both of the brothers' girlfriends, who saw the incident, and the defendant's 16-year-old brother.

"I'm proud to see a jury set aside their emotions, apply the facts to the law and come up with the right verdict," DiGiacomo said. "They truly are a tribute to our system."

Kocka said he was shocked by the jury's verdict. He had hoped that if Jones were to be convicted he would be convicted of voluntary manslaughter, thus making him eligible for probation.

"His mother lost two sons today," Kocka said.

Jury members Joe Piazza and Kynan Dias said they would have returned a verdict hours earlier had one juror not been so concerned about Jones' possible prison sentence -- which jurors are told they must not consider.

She was initially adamant Jones acted in self-defense because one of the girlfriends testified she had been pushed aside by Steven Jones during the argument, Piazza said.

Eventually, however, after listening twice to Daniel Jones' taped statement to police and after carefully reviewing jury instructions repeatedly, Piazza said the jury was able to come to a unanimous decision.

"This trial was very difficult emotionally, but when Mr. Zadrowski instructed us before we began deliberating, he made it very, very clear what our job was and we had everything we needed to come to the conclusion we did," Piazza said.

Dias concurred.

"No one would say that this wasn't a tragedy," Dias said.