High court denies appeal in teen killing

Monday, March 7, 2005 | 8:18 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has denied the petition of a Las Vegas man who, at the age of 14, shot and killed another teenager.

Marcus A. Dixon, now 21, sought a writ of habeas corpus from the Supreme Court on grounds his trial attorney was ineffective for failing to move to suppress a pretrial identification procedure.

Dixon was sentenced to two consecutive life terms with parole for the fatal shooting of 16-hear-old Daryl Crittenden outside a supermarket and the wounding of Steven Austin in May 1998.

After the shooting, Dixon and a codefendant stood in front of a police car, spotlighted by headlights and apparently handcuffed. Austin, who was wounded, identified Dixon as the shooter at the time and at the trial.

A second witness failed to make any identification and a third witness gave inconsistent statements.

The court Friday said Dixon failed to demonstrate that a motion to suppress the identification procedure had "a reasonable likelihood of success or that he (Dixon) was prejudiced by counsel's omission."

The decision upholds District Judge Nancy Saitta, who denied the writ in May last year.

Dixon's brother, Calvin, who was 16 at the time, was also convicted of first-degree murder.

In another decision Friday, the court rejected the appeal of Christopher Duncan, sentenced to two consecutive terms of 10-25 years for second-degree murder in Las Vegas for the killing of his former live-in girlfriend.

Duncan maintained that his trial lawyer and his attorney in his first appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court were ineffective in more than ten instances and he deserved a new trial.

The court rejected the appeal. But it did order the record corrected to show Duncan was convicted by a jury rather than pleading guilty to the charge.

Duncan, now 26, was convicted in 2003 of strangling 18-year-old Shalynn Hatter with a telephone cord and dumping the body in a trash bin.