Prosecutors push for death sentence for killer of elderly woman

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, April 18, 2003 | 9:40 a.m.

Prosecutors on Thursday told jurors that Anthony Dotson, the Las Vegas man convicted in the slaying of an elderly Las Vegas woman five years ago, should pay for his crime with his life.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz asked jurors to sentence Dotson to death for the December 1999 slaying of 79-year-old Doris Bair.

Jurors were expected to begin deliberating today.

Schwartz reminded jurors of Dotson's decades-long history of terrorizing elderly women in California and Nevada. He urged jurors to set aside their emotions and concentrate on the victims.

"Don't forget about Doris Bair," Schwartz said. "He is her murderer. He doesn't deserve your sympathy, mercy or compassion and he certainly doesn't deserve your leniency."

But Dotson, 45, who took the stand and read a brief, unsworn statement, asked jurors to show him mercy, despite his brutal crimes.

"I want to apologize," he said. "I wish I could turn back the hands of time."

Dotson said he has two grown daughters and a granddaughter that he hardly knows. He asked jurors to spare his life for their sake.

"I don't want them to be the kind of person I am," he said. "What I'd like to do is move on."

During the penalty phase, prosecutors laid out for jurors Dotson's violent past. Dotson was convicted of robbing and assaulting two other elderly women in California in 1978 and 1987. He spent 12 years in a California prison for those crimes.

Defense attorneys asked jurors to consider Dotson's brain damage, along with the physical and sexual abuse that plagued his childhood, when deciding his fate.

Deputy Special Public Defender Daren Richards maintained that Dotson was worthy of mercy, partially because he'd taken responsibility for his actions.

Deputy Special Public Defender Alzora Jackson said Dotson never intended to kill Bair, only to rob her. She said he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the killing.

Schwartz said Dotson brutally killed Bair because he didn't want her to be able to identify him. Bair's beaten body was found bound and gagged.

"He had the wherewithal to tie her up, beat her, go through the house and take items of value," he said. "Where's all this emotional distress?"

Jurors on Thursday also heard from Kevin Strobeck, a Metro Police officer who conducts investigations inside the Clark County Detention Center.

Strobeck described for jurors the many disciplinary problems Dotson has had during his stay at the jail. Dotson was twice caught with "shanks" or sharp metal objects, hidden on his person or in his room, Strobeck said.

When questioned by corrections officers, Dotson often became belligerent, used profanity or threatened them with violence, Strobeck said. Under cross-examination by Jackson, Strobeck said Dotson never hurt anyone during the incidents.