Court may have erred in reversal

Molly Ball

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004 | 11:25 a.m.

Avery Church may not go free after all, despite having his attempted murder conviction overturned and not sent back for a new trial by the Nevada Supreme Court.

The state's highest court appears to have erred in reversing Church's conviction without specifying that it was either dismissed or remanded for retrial.

Church's lawyer, David Amesbury, had taken that to mean that Church was totally exonerated.

But the court's omission didn't mean the case was automatically dismissed, court spokesman Bill Gang said. "A reversal does not constitute a dismissal," he said.

"It was the intent of the justices that the case be remanded for a new trial," Gang said.

He said he did not know how the judges would go about issuing a clarification of the original verdict, which stated only that the original judgment in Clark County District Court was reversed.

Church, 27, was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery for the 1999 beating and torturing of a Las Vegas man over money.

In August, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction, saying prosecutors improperly introduced evidence at Church's trial. The prosecution played tape-recorded conversations Church had with his girlfriend without calling the girlfriend to testify.

That was a violation of the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees those accused of crimes the right to confront their accusers, the state court ruled.

Church is currently being held on $500,000 bail.

Molly Ball

can be reached at (702) 259-8814 or molly@lasvegassun.com