Mosley steps aside to let new judge try Whaley killing

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

District Judge Donald Mosley will no longer preside over the case of three 18-year-olds accused in the Oct. 14 killing of their 17-year-old friend because the lawyer newly hired by one of the accused previously served as Mosley's lawyer in two different cases.

Shane Myers, his brother Cody Myers and Matthew Baker have all pleaded not guilty to charges of murder with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon and robbery with use of a deadly weapon in the slaying of Silverado High School student Jared Whaley.

Shane Myers' family has hired attorney Thomas Pitaro, who has represented Mosley in both an ongoing custody battle between Mosley and the mother of Mosley's 11-year-old son and in 2002 during judicial misconduct hearings before the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Myers' previously had lawyers Glenn Schepps and Dennis Leavitt representing him.

District Judge Lee Gates will now preside over the trial and at a Sept. 13 hearing to set a new trial date for the Myers brothers and Baker.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens has filed a motion of intent to seek the death penalty for both Baker and Shane Myers. Prior to Pitaro joining the case there was a failed attempt at having Mosley recused from presiding over the matter.

District Judge Michael Cherry ruled Thursday that there were no grounds to disqualify Mosley from hearing the case at a June 10 hearing.

Cherry said the fact that John Wright, the lawyer who represented a former co-defendant, 19-year-old Stephen Stringfield, once briefly assisted in representing the mother of Donald Mosley's 11-year-old son in custody battle, was not "sufficient grounds to disqualify."

Stringfield has since reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, admitting to cleaning blood off then co-defendant Baker's jacket and providing gasoline to burn clothes and other evidence.

Stringfield pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanor destruction of evidence. As part of the deal, Stringfield has agreed to testify in the trials of others accused in the case. He could be sentenced to as little as three years of probation or as much as a year in jail.

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