Nevada Supreme Court denies killers’ appeals

Friday, June 27, 2003 | 11:34 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court Thursday turned aside the appeal of Termaine A. Lytle, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the strangulation of an 84-year-old woman in Clark County.

The court accepted the decision of District Judge Donald Mosley, who ruled Lytle's petition for a writ of habeas corpus was defective. Mosley said Lytle failed to specify how his conviction was unlawful.

Lytle was found guilty in 2001 by a District Court jury in the strangulation of Selma Adelman in her home. A deal was struck that Lytle would accept life in prison without the possibility of parole if the state did not seek the death penalty.

Co-defendant Robert Walker received a 20-year to life term for the offense.

The court also rejected the petition for a writ of habeas corpus from Esteban Hernandez, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the robbery-stabbing death of 64-year-old Sam Paterniti in Clark County in June 1998.

The court upheld District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who held that Hernandez, who was 20 years old at the time of the killing, missed the deadline for filing his petition and that he had already submitted two prior appeals.