Clemency granted ‘show and tell’ killer

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Pardons Board on Monday granted clemency to Sandy Shaw, who has served 18 years in prison for being connected to the murder of 21-year-old James C. Kelly in the desert near Las Vegas.

Shaw, dubbed the "show and tell" killer, will now be eligible to apply for parole immediately instead of waiting until 2009.

The vote was 5-3 for approval with Justices Mark Gibbons and Nancy Becker and Attorney General Brian Sandoval opposing the clemency.

George Thiede, the brother of the victim, had testified against the release. He said he was angry that the board voted to allow her to apply immediately for parole.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, chairman of the Pardons Board, predicted it would "be quite some time" before the Parole Board grants her release. He said Shaw would have to clean up her disciplinary record in prison before she is released.

In 1986 when Shaw was 15, she lured Kelly into the desert in an attempt to rob him of $1,400. Troy Kell fatally shot Kelly six times in the head. Kell was sentenced to death. The other assailant was Billy Merritt, who pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was paroled and is now back in prison on another offense.

Steve Owens of the Clark County district attorney's office said Shaw told her schoolmates that she shot Kelly. Owens said she took some of her friends to view the corpse and there was additional looting of the body.

Owens said the district attorney's office opposed the clemency. He said Shaw devised the plot to kill Kelly to get the $1,400 Kelly had won.

Guinn noted that there is nothing in the record indicating that Shaw fired any of the shots that killed Kelly.

Shaw told the board Monday that she "never wanted him to die."

Her voice choking with emotion, Shaw said she set up Kelly to be beaten up and that she never fired a shot.

Her two co-defendants have written letters to say that she had nothing to do with the shooting, she said.

She acknowledged that she had received disciplinary infractions in prison. But she said she has been "punished severely" for those write-ups and they should not be held against her in seeking her release.

William Terry, Shaw's lawyer, said Shaw has become a mentor to other inmates, steering them away from trouble

Crystal Carbough, who was in prison with Shaw, testified that Shaw had a "positive effect" on other inmates. "She told me to stay away from the bad stuff," said Carbough who started to cry during her testimony.

Carbough was released five years ago and is now attending the Community College of Southern Nevada.