Retired LV prosecutor Leen dies at age 62

Friday, May 28, 2004 | 11:21 a.m.

Tom Leen, a retired Las Vegas prosecutor who put away some of the region's most high-profile killers in the 1980s, died Wednesday night at his Las Vegas home. He was 62.

No services are planned for Leen, a Las Vegas resident of 34 years. He is the husband of U.S. Magistrate Peggy Leen.

"Tom was a tiger in the courtroom, and he convicted some of our most notorious criminals," District Attorney David Roger said today.

"One case that comes to mind is Richard Haberstroh, who kidnapped a woman and murdered her. The first time Tom got a hung jury, but the second time he won a conviction."

Haberstroh was on death row for raping, strangling and robbing 20-year-old Donna Kitowski in 1986 after kidnapping her from a grocery store parking lot. Last year, he was granted a new sentencing hearing by a 4-3 decision of the state Supreme Court.

"Tom was in my opinion an expert on Fourth Amendment law -- search and seizure of home and vehicle," Roger said. "The search and seizure manual he wrote is still used by our prosecutors today.

"He also had a great admiration for law enforcement and enjoyed teaching at the police academy. Even after his retirement (in 1993), he taught there for a number of years."

Leen may be best remembered by the public for his prosecutions of two cases.

Patrick Lizotte, while a student at Valley High in March 1982, shot and killed his teacher Clarrence Piggott Jr., in what has been described as the deadliest classroom case ever in Clark County. Lizotte wounded two other students before being wounded by a police officer.

Then there was James Earl Hill was one of two men who broke into the home of 56-year-old wheelchair-bound woman, Altonia Matthews, in March 1983 and killed her by shoving a sharp, pointed stick 13 inches into her groin.

Leen, then-chief deputy district attorney, gained convictions in both cases.

Lizotte is serving two life sentences. Hill remains on death row. He may never be executed, however, because a three-judge panel sentenced him to death after a jury could not reach a decision during the penalty phase. The U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled that only a jury can impose the death penalty.

During his career, Leen also was a defense attorney, serving as chief deputy public defender before switching to the prosecutor's office in 1982.

Leen earned his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1966. After a tour in Vietnam in the Air Force, he came to Las Vegas in 1970 and three years later became executive director of Clark County Legal Services.

Leen twice ran unsuccessfully for District Court judge.

He was a member of the Nevada, California and Massachusets bars and was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Leen also was a member of the Clark County Bar Association and is a former teacher of constitutional law in the political science department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

A list of survivors was not immediately available.