Abuse trial delayed in stabbings of two girls

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

The trial of the mother of two children who were stabbed in Mesquite was postponed Tuesday because her lawyers said they need more time to investigate about 65 people on the prosecution's witness list.

Tamara Schmidt and her husband, Robert John Schmidt II, are charged with child abuse and neglect in connection with the stabbing attack.

Schmidt's then-10-year-old daughter Brittney Bergeron and Brittney's 3-year-old half-sister Kristyanna Cowan were stabbed after being left by themselves in the family's trailer in the Casablanca hotel and casino RV park in January 2003. Kristyanna was killed and Brittney was left paralyzed from the waist down.

The Schmidts have pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child abuse and neglect for leaving the children home alone the night of the murder and for allegedly routinely getting high on drugs and leaving the two children at home alone while the couple went to gamble at casinos.

District Judge Donald Mosley reluctantly granted a new trial date for the couple after their attorneys said they would need the additional time to do their find out more about the prosecution witnesses.

Tamara Schmidt's attorney, Joseph Caramagno, said he "hadn't seen a witness list like this since the Binion trial."

Mosley agreed the list seemed long, saying that if all of the witnesses were called to testify, the case could go forward until Christmas.

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich Rego said she would not call all 65 witnesses and only listed them all to be cautious. She said she simply listed all of the names of those people who testified at the grand jury and those whose names came up in the testimony given before the grand jury to be cautious.

"These witnesses have all been introduced in discovery since October and November of last year and there is nothing new," Luzaich Rego said.

The prosecutor said she expects 30 to 35 witnesses to be called to testify and believed the majority would only testify for five to 10 minutes.

Luzaich Rego said she filed the witness list 14 days before the trial date as required by law and had not once been contacted by the Schmidts' attorneys to see what witnesses she intended to call.

Luzaich Rego said if the defense lawyers contacted her she would have worked with them in effort to quell any concerns they had about being surprised by a witness. She said she found it interesting that six days before the trial the defense has turned over no witness list.

"All they (the Schmidts' attorneys) had to do is call me and ask who they (the witnesses) are," Luzaich Rego said. "This is a case that needs to be tried and there are witnesses that need to have it done with."

Mosley said he was not happy about rescheduling the trial and couldn't understand why the defense attorneys hadn't already been interviewing and investigating the witnesses on the list.

The judge used the situation as a chance to address the problems of attorneys not being prepared for trial, a problem he said often results in judges becoming "characters on the bench."

Mosley said if attorneys continue to come before him saying, "Gee whiz, I don't have discovery, or gee whiz, I'm not ready for trial" they will see "some nasty results."

Because Mosley has a heavy criminal trial schedule -- including the May trial of the motorcycle gang members who allegedly participated in the deadly riot at the 2002 Laughlin River Run -- the judge set two possible trial dates for the Schmidts.

The first possible date is July 25. at which time Mosley hopes to have the case appointed to senior judge. If that first option fails, Mosley said he would hear the case on March 27, 2006. The motorcycle gangs trial may last as long as six months, court officials have said.

Beau and Monique Maestas have been charged in connection with the attack on Tamara Schmidt's daughters. Authorities allege the children were attacked after the Maestas siblings discovered that the Schmidts sold them bogus methamphetamine.

The Maestas siblings are scheduled to stand trial on May 31, but that date may change due to a scheduling conflict Beau Maestas' attorney, Pete Christiansen, has in connection with the Hells Angels/Mongols case set to begin May 2 before Mosley.

Christiansen represents Hells Angels member James Hannigan in the trial.

On Thursday, Mosley is to hear Christiansen's motion to postpone the Maestas trial.

But Beau Maestas has court hearing on another matter coming up on April 12. That's the date for his preliminary hearing before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle on a battery by a prisoner charge. He faces one to six years in prison if convicted.

Maestas was charged with battery last week after allegedly fighting with two corrections officers at the Clark County Detention Center.

The incident occurred March 24. An officer wrote in a report that he saw Maestas, who was on "free time," pass contraband soup packets to another inmate by putting them under the inmate's door.

When the officers confronted him, Maestas allegedly bent over and tried to pick up the packets, the report says. The officer stopped him and tried to guide him by the arm back to his cell, and Maestas allegedly began struggling violently.

At one point he became passive and the officers started to handcuff him, the report says, but he spun around and grabbed one of the officers' legs and attempted to lift and push him over the upper tier railing.

One of the officers struck Maestas in the mid-section and grabbed his long hair, then forced his head to the ground, the report says. He was placed in handcuffs and leg shackles.

An officer suffered a scraped elbow, and Maestas complained of wrist pain after the altercation, according to the report.

Sun reporter Jen Lawson contributed to this report.