Court briefs for Jan. 22, 2003

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2003 | 8:51 a.m.

Hearing ordered in killer's sentencing

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that convicted killer Frederick Steese is entitled to a hearing in District Court to present evidence that he did not understand the sentencing options offered after being convicted in the fatal stabbing of a Las Vegas man.

A District Court jury in 1995 found Steese guilty of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Gerald Soulos, who ran a pet poodle show at Circus Circus. Soulos' nude body was found in his trailer at the Silver Nugget Campland in North Las Vegas. He had been stabbed more than 100 times.

Steese said when the district attorney's office offered a deal, he mistakenly chose life without parole because he believed it was the only way he would be able to file a direct appeal.

The Supreme Court said there was nothing in the record on Steese's appeal to show what the agreement was at sentencing. It ordered District Judge Kathy Hardcastle to hold a hearing to take evidence in the case to determine whether Steese's claim was correct.

Guilty plea entered in armory robbery

Two Las Vegas men will likely spend at least two years in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to stealing firearms and ammunition from an armory.

Joshua Moyers, 19, and Jonathan Avendano, 21, pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary and one charge of grand larceny for a Thanksgiving weekend robbery of a Parole and Probation building on East Bonanza Road and a robbery of a Department of Motor Vehicles office.

They will be sentenced March 4 in District Court. The recommended sentence negotiated is jail time from two to five years.

Trial begins in hotel room killing

Prosecutors in the case of Paulette Perry, a Pennsylvania woman charged with luring a man into a hotel room and robbing and killing him, say the woman committed a similar crime in her home state.

A Las Vegas jury will hear the allegations of Harvey Baughman, also of Pennsylvania, during Perry's trial, which was scheduled to begin today, District Judge John McGroarty ruled Tuesday.

Baughman testified at a pre-trial hearing that Perry and Kenneth Grant robbed him of about $100 on the side of a Pennsylvania highway in 2001 when he refused to loan them money.

Perry, 34, faces three felony charges, which include murder with the use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, in the April 2001 stabbing death of David Sygnarski.