Supreme Court upholds Vegas murder conviction

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008 | 1:55 p.m.

CARSON CITY – A woman, twice convicted of the fatal beating of her 5-year-old stepdaughter in Las Vegas, has lost her latest appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Martha Flores, 32, is serving a life term with the possibility of parole at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center in North Las Vegas for the murder of Zoraida Flores in their home on Jan. 28, 2001.

The court in 2005 overturned the initial first-degree murder by child abuse conviction because improper out-of-court statements were made. But it rejected the latest appeals on Wednesday for a new trial.

Flores said the murder conviction should be reversed because District Judge Joseph Bonaventure was prejudiced against her and should have been disqualified.

Bonaventure presided at the first trial and at the sentencing, he told Martha her conduct was “disgraceful,” she was “the worst of the lot” and that he wished her hatred would torment her for the rest of her life in prison.

The court said the remarks made by Bonaventure failed to show a “deep-seated favoritism or antagonism that would make fair judgment impossible.”

Bonaventure declined to step aside at the second trial. And he submitted the matter to Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle who denied the motion by Flores to have Bonaventure disqualified.

Flores and her stepdaughter got into an argument when the girl wet the bed and refused to go to the bathroom. Flores’ daughter Silvia testified that her mother took Zoraida into the bathroom, struck her and the stepdaughter fell to the floor and later died.

Cy Ryan may be reached at (775) 687-5032 or cy@lasvegassun.com.