Pardons Board reduces killer’s sentence

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 | 9:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Ray Turner told the state Pardons Board he was a cold-blooded killer when he fatally shot a Las Vegas businessman.

"It's been a horror to live with," Turner said.

Turner, his voice choking with emotion, said, "I'm sorry for being a dope-headed kid, running the streets drinking alcohol ... I wish the victims could forgive me."

Turner, 40, said he deserved the 21 years he has spent in prison. His presentation and his record in prison during the last six years persuaded the Pardons Board on Friday to reduce Turner's sentence of consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole to allow him to immediately apply for parole.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, chairman of the Pardons Board, said Turner has compiled a "pretty impressive" record in participating in rehabilitation programs.

When he was 19, Turner shot and killed Herbert Schweitzer in Las Vegas.

Deputy State Public Defender Harriett Cummings told the board that Turner was under the influence of drugs when he shot Schweitzer. And when he got to prison, Cummings said, he "hung out with the wrong crowd and used drugs."

In the 1990s, she said, Turner realized he would die in prison "unless he straightened out." In the past six years, she said, he has completed all of the educational and rehabilitation programs available to him. Prison officials describe him as an "excellent employee and a model inmate," she said.

When he arrived in prison he had a fourth grade education and he has now earned a high school degree.

Turner still must apply to the Parole Board before he is released. If freed, he plans to live with his mother in North Las Vegas and work in an electrical repair shop owned by his uncle.

The vote was 6-2 with Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker voting no.

In other action, the board: