Court briefs for January 26, 2005

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 9:20 a.m.

House arrest eased for youth

A 17-year-old who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a 311 Boyz gang attack that left a teen with a crushed face had his house arrest restrictions eased Tuesday.

District Judge Michael Cherry gave Brandon Gallion permission to leave his home to play lacrosse and to participate in track and field activities.

On Aug. 16 Cherry sentenced Gallion to one year of house arrest and four years of probation for participating in the July 2003 stone throwing that smashed 17-year-old Stephen Tanner Hansen's face. Cherry agreed to modify the conditions of Gallion's house arrest so he could take part in the two extracurricular activities, which Cherry said "build character."

Cherry, however, made it clear Gallion would need his approval to do anything else.

"I don't care if he (Gallion) has a social life at all. He doesn't deserve a social life," Cherry said.

The lives of Gallion's victim and his family were forever altered by the attack, Cherry noted in previous hearings connected to the case. Hansen has had numerous surgeries and will have to continue to undergo multiple facial reconstructive surgeries.

Supreme Court denies appeal

The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the appeal of Anthony Bagley, convicted of the shooting of Curtis Henry in Las Vegas in 1998.

Bagley claimed his attorney was ineffective because he failed to have the shirt of the victim examined for gunshot residue and to have an expert testify about the residue. He said that testimony and examination would have demonstrated the victim was shot up close and the shooting was unintentional.

The court said, "Bagley has failed to demonstrate how additional testimony regarding the gunshot residue on the victim's shirt would have altered the outcome of his trial."

Bagley was sentenced to consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole.

The court also rejected a fourth appeal from Leonard D. Vignolo Sr., sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Rachel Karr, 27, who disappeared from Las Vegas in 1981.

Vignolo said his sentence was defective because he did not receive a separate penalty hearing. The court said a separate penalty hearing at that time was required only in the capital murder cases and the prosecution did not request the death penalty.

Prosecutors say Vignolo shot Karr in a dispute over money and then buried part of her body in the desert outside Las Vegas and part of it at China Lake in California.

Karr was co-owner of a Fremont Street used car lot.

Parole denied for killer of judge's son

The state Parole Board said Tuesday it has denied an application for release of John Mazzan, who was convicted of the fatal stabbing of the son of a Reno judge in 1978.

Mazzan was once sentenced to death for the killing of Richard Minor Jr., the son of the late Reno Justice of the Peace Richard Minor.

In 2000, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. Mazzan and the Washoe County district attorney's office reached a deal for him to plead guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

David Smith, a spokesman for the board, said the vote was unanimous. He said the board's denial was based on the nature and severity of the crime and "the need to protect the public from further criminal activity."

Mazzan will not be able to apply against until May of 2008.

Mazzan, 58, has also admitted to killing his girlfriend April Barber, but he was never prosecuted for that crime. When the Supreme Court sent the case back to district court, the plea agreement called for the dismissal of the murder charge involving Barber.

At the Parole Board hearing earlier this month, Mazzan said he was on drugs when he stabbed Minor in his apartment. The hearing was Mazzan's second time seeking parole.