Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Board denies leniency for woman in ‘trick roll’ strangling

CARSON CITY – The state Pardons Board has denied the request for clemency from a female inmate who at age 15 strangled a man in a Las Vegas hotel room while posing as a prostitute in a trick roll caper.

Alisha Burns has served six years and eight months of a life term with parole eligibility after 10 years on the second-degree murder conviction.

Her co-defendant, Steven Kaczmarek, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life term.

Burns told the board, “There is nothing I can say that will justify what I did. I regret it every day.” At age 15, she was the youngest inmate in the female prison. “There is nothing harder than growing up in prison. I did that.”

Attorney Randall Roske, representing Burns, said she has rehabilitated herself. And Burns asked to be immediately eligible to apply for parole.

But Steve Owens, chief criminal deputy in the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, said Burns strangled Pedro Villareal and because of her light weight had to jump up and down on his neck.

He said Kaczmarek got the death penalty but the Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new penalty hearing and he now has a life term without possibility of parole.

Attorneys for Burns said she was under the influence of Kaczmarek, who was 32 at the time when she was 15 years.

Supreme Court Justice Michael Cherry made a motion to grant the request for parole eligibility immediately but he gained only the support of Gov. Jim Gibbons on the board composed of the Supreme Court, the attorney general and the governor.

But the board granted relief to Las Vegas kidnapper Billy Johnson when his victim testified in support of reducing the sentence.

Virginia Hastings told the board that Johnson is a changed man after serving more than 12 years in prison. “He would not do it again,” Hastings said.

It is unusual for a victim to support relief. Johnson received a life term plus consecutive sentences of 60 to 160 months. Under approval by the board, he will be eligible to apply for parole in 2012 and then start serving a five-year term.

Owens opposed the clemency saying Johnson held a drill at the neck of Hastings and said he was going to rape her. She was able to escape before any sexual assault took place.

But in another case, the relatives of the victim may have convinced the board to deny the application of Richard Gaston, convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Mario Wesley who died in August 1993 at the age of 23 in Las Vegas.

Vanetta Wesley and Verchelle Wesley, the mother and sister of the victim, both urged the board not to grant clemency. Verchelle said the persons who murdered her brother did not show mercy. Both cried while giving their testimony and the board voted 8-1 to deny a reduction in sentence that would have made Gaston immediately eligible to apply for parole.

Gaston was one of a group of men who robbed Wesley and another man. The state prison had recommended clemency for Gaston, who has served 16 years and four months.

The board approved relief for killer Kevin Houser, whose two life terms were reduced to 10 years to 25 years. He will be immediately eligible for parole but then will have to start serving a ten-year term.

Houser, who was 16 at the time, and co-defendant Devan Rivera drove Ismael Arevinas into the desert outside Las Vegas where he was shot to death. Rivera, also serving a life term, was angry because Arevinas reportedly "hit" on his girlfriend.

The board also voted 6-2 to reduce the life term without parole to allow Thomas Welch to apply for parole. He has served 20 years and nine months in prison. He stabbed to death another person over a gambling debt in Las Vegas.

The board delayed action on the request of Las Vegas killer Frank S. D’Agostino, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the fatal stabbing of Eleanor Panzarella in Las Vegas.

A legal question arose whether the board could reduce the term of D’Agostino and the case will be considered at the April meeting of the pardons board.

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