Supreme Court halts death penalty motion

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday ruled the Clark County district attorney's office twice failed to present adequate facts in its notice to seek the death penalty against Armando Cortinas, accused of the murder of a Las Vegas prostitute.

The court issued a writ of mandamus stopping the district attorney's office from using either of the two prior notices when it goes to trial against Cortinas, accused of the strangulation of Kathryn Kercher, whose body was found in the desert on April 20, 2003.

Testimony was presented to a Clark County grand jury that Kercher had gone to the home of Cortinas and he paid her $150 for sexual favors. He then began to choke her. He put her body in the trunk of her car, drove to the desert where he stabbed her three times in the back and took the $150 he had paid her in addition to two diamond earrings.

In its notice to seek the death penalty, the district attorney's office said the murder was committed during a robbery, was committed without apparent motive and that it involved torture or mutilation.

The Supreme Court said the prosecutors in filing the notice to seek the death penalty must identify the witnesses, documents and other means by which the evidence will be presented.

For instance, the court said the prosecution believed that strangling the victim amounted to torture. It said the prosecution "had to allege facts showing that Cortinas intended to inflict pain beyond the killing itself."

The district attorney's office submitted a second notice of intent to seek the death penalty. But the court said it "did not summarize the substance of any of the intended evidence and it failed to identify any specific witnesses ..."

The court said District Judge Kathy Hardcastle "manifestly abused" her discretion in refusing to grant the motions of Cortinas to strike the state's notice of intent to seek the death penalty.

The case now returns to district court.