Death row inmate gets new penalty hearing

Heather Rawlyk

Friday, June 11, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

A man on Nevada's death row for the murder of a Las Vegas jewelry store owner during a 1985 robbery was awarded a new penalty hearing Thursday by the state Supreme Court.

Paul Lewis Browning was awarded the new hearing after a three-justice panel said Browning's attorney, in an unsuccessful appeal, failed to challenge a jury instruction on his client's "depravity of mind."

That was one of five aggravating circumstances that jurors considered during his initial penalty hearing.

Browning claimed the absence of instruction defining the term depravity of mind -- which requires torture or other serious physical abuse beyond the act of killing -- failed to provide the required guidance to jurors.

The panel concluded that "prejudice resulted" and, had the jury known the definition of the aggravated circumstance, jurors may have voted differently on the death penalty.

Although a new penalty hearing has been awarded, the justices said a new trial will not be held to determine whether Browning is guilty of the robbery and murder because of "overwhelming" evidence.

Browning, then 30, was sentenced to death in 1987 after he was convicted of robbing and fatally stabbing Hugo Elsen, 60, the owner of Elsen's jewelry store, at the time located at 520 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

The court pointed out that after the murder, police found Browning's fingerprints at the crime scene and later located him in a downtown motel room "surrounded by the stolen jewelry." Witnesses also placed Browning at Elsen's jewelry store at the time of the murder.

Two of Browning's acquaintances, Randy and Vanessa Wolfe, called police after Browning told them that he had just robbed and killed a man. Vanessa Wolfe led police to the murder weapon, a bloody jacket and pieces of the stolen jewelry.

Browning, whose mother described him as a good student and top athlete in high school, said his abuse of drugs led him to commit the crime.