Beau Maestas may get death penalty after all

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

Beau Maestas may yet get the death penalty.

District Judge Donald Mosley this morning opted not to sentence the admitted child killer to life in prison without the possibility of parole as allowed by Nevada law. Instead Mosley scheduled a new penalty hearing for Maestas for April 10.

Maestas, 21, previously pleaded guilty to one count each of murder, attempted murder and burglary, all with use of a deadly weapon for killing 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan and stabbing and leaving her half-sister Brittney Bergeron paralyzed.

After hearing testimony and arguments about whether Maestas should be executed for the crimes, a Clark County District Court jury on June 9 announced that it was deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of death for Maestas.

Because of the deadlock, Mosley granted a mistrial.

The jury was trying to decide whether Maestas would be sentenced to death, life in prison without the possibility of parole, life in prison with the possibility of parole or a set term of 40 to 100 years in prison.

As detailed in the penalty phase before the jury, Maestas stabbed the girls in a Mesquite trailer park in 2003. Prosecutors allege he and his sister, Monique Maestas, was looking for their mother and her then-boyfriend, who he said ripped him off in a drug deal.

Previously, if a jury was deadlocked during a death penalty case in Nevada, a three-judge panel was created to determine sentencing, but in 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty should be applied only by a jury.

Mosley's decision over whether to set a new penalty hearing or sentence Maestas to life in prison without the possibility of parole as the result of a mistrial marked the first time such a ruling was required since the three-judge panel sentencing method was discarded.

Beau Maestas' sister, Monique, faces the same charges as her brother plus one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Mosley scheduled her trial for April 17.

She will not face a possible death sentence because of this year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that people who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes can't be executed for those crimes.

Monique Maestas was 17 at the time of the attack.

The victims' mother, Tamara Schmidt and her husband, Robert, are facing charges of child abuse and neglect in connection with the stabbing attack for leaving the children unattended the night of the killing while the couple gambled.

They are scheduled to stand trial on July 25 before Mosley.