Supreme Court rejects appeal in coercion case

Friday, Nov. 28, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas man who threatened to shoot his ex-wife to death unless she gave him $5,000 has lost his appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court on his convictions of coercion and solicitation to commit murder.

The court rejected the claim of Morris Wade that there was insufficient evidence to convict him on the coercion with a deadly weapon count.

Wade's ex-wife, Janice Wade, testified that in January 1996 Morris pointed a shotgun at her and said that if she did not get $5,000 from the bank he would "put that gun up my (expletive) and see how far my brains would splatter all over.'

She testified that Wade told her he needed the $5,000 to hire a motorcycle gang to kill his neighbors and their baby so they could not testify against him in a pending criminal matter.

The court said Tuesday there was evidence presented from a jailhouse informant and an undercover police officer that Wade, while in prison on the coercion charge, offered money to have his ex-wife killed. He planned to use his prison bank account to pay for the murder.

Wade was sentenced to four to 12 years on the coercion charge and a consecutive four to 15 years on the solicitation count.