Inmate arraigned in killing

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state will seek the death penalty for Paul Derischebourg, accused of stabbing to death a cellmate at the Ely State Prison, the attorney general's office said Monday.

Gerald Gardner, chief of the criminal division in the attorney general's office, said Derischebourg was to be arraigned in District Court in Ely today and the state will file notice asking for the sentence of death.

Derischebourg, 29, is accused of stabbing Jacob Armstrong seven times with a homemade knife on Aug. 10, 2001. Both inmates were from Clark County. Armstrong, who was 21 at the time, died 11 days later at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Derischebourg claimed he stabbed Armstrong in self-defense.

Gardner said Derischebourg and Armstrong were believed to be members of a white supremacy gang. They apparently did not know each other, but both requested they be housed in the same cell because they did not smoke.

They were moved into the same cell and within minutes an argument erupted. Derischebourg said it involved who would sleep in the bottom bunk. He said he was challenged by Armstrong and stabbed the victim to protect himself.

Derischebourg is serving a 10-year to life term for a sexual assault in 1998 in Clark County. He is also serving time for battery with intent to commit sexual assault in another case.

Armstrong was sent to prison at the age of 15 for 24 to 60 years for armed robbery.