Court rejects appeal

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003 | 10:08 a.m.

The Nevada Supreme Court rejected the appeals of four men found guilty in Las Vegas of kidnapping, extortion and mayhem in 1996 in torturing a young woman in her home.

The four -- Joseph Clem, Kenneth and Gerald Bridgewater and James Player -- used a red-hot table fork and a heated electric iron to inflict second-degree burns on Katherine Sexton in her home after she threw out a bag of cocaine worth $1,500.

The sentences of the four were enhanced because the fork and iron were considered deadly weapons.

The Supreme Court upheld the sentences in 1998, but in a 1990 decision in another case, the court narrowed the definition of "deadly weapon" so it could not include the fork and the iron. But the court refused to make the decision retroactive.

The court Tuesday upheld the decision of District Judge Lee Gates that the enhanced sentences of the four should continue to stand.

Each of the four men received a life term in prison with the possibility of parole for kidnapping, 10 years for extortion and five years for mayhem. Each received an additional identical consecutive sentence for each offense because the crimes involved "deadly weapons."