Supreme Court upholds first-degree murder conviction

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 | 4 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Wilbert E. Leslie, sentenced to consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for a Las Vegas killing in 1994.

Leslie, now 34, was originally sentenced to death for the shooting of William Prewitt, an Air Force sergeant who was moonlighting as a clerk at a convenience store in Las Vegas.

The Supreme Court in 2004 overturned the death penalty, saying one of the mitigating circumstances used to justify the sentence was invalid. Leslie was then sentenced to the life terms.

In his new appeal, Leslie claimed there were nine errors made at his trial, including that his attorney at trial and his lawyer in his post-conviction appeals were ineffective for failing to raise a number of issues.

The court said Leslie has waited too long to raise issues that occurred at his trial in 1996 and there was no merit to the other claims pursued in this appeal.

Leslie is held at the High Desert State Prison in Las Vegas.

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