News briefs for Jan. 8, 2004

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

Man sentenced in DUI death

A man charged with driving drunk and causing a collision last year that killed a 42-year-old Las Vegas man was sentenced to prison on Wednesday.

District Judge Nancy Saitta sentenced Victor Delucia, 32, to 15 years in prison in the Jan. 20 accident that killed Allen Schoenecker. Delucia will be eligible for parole after 3 1/2 years.

Delucia was also ordered to pay $1,600 in restitution and $2,000 in fines, Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson said.

Delucia had pleaded guilty to a single count of DUI during a November hearing. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop one count each of reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter.

Authorities say Delucia was traveling southbound on State Route 160 between Pahrump and Las Vegas when he drifted out of his lane and struck Schoenecker's pickup, which was headed in the opposite direction.

The accident marked Delucia's second arrest on a drunken driving charge. He was arrested and charged with DUI in Henderson in 1995, Nelson said.

Shearing becomes chief justice

Justice Miriam Shearing, the first woman elected to the Nevada Supreme Court, has taken over as chief justice for the last year of her term in office.

Shearing succeeds Deborah Agosti in the top job that is rotated among the seven justices.

Shearing was the first woman elected justice of the peace in Las Vegas in 1976 and became the first woman elected as a District Court judge in Las Vegas in 1982. She was elected to the Nevada Supreme Court in 1992. She has decided not to run for re-election when her term ends in January 2005.

Shearing, in a news release Wednesday, said one of her goals during this final year will be to "move forward toward a paperless court."

"Public access would be enhanced through the online filing and retrieval of court documents," she said.