Appeal denied in Vegas woman’s kidnapping, strangling death

By Cy Ryan

Monday, Feb. 8, 2010 | 9:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court has allowed jurors to consider the death penalty in the case of Richard Haberstroh, convicted of the kidnap, rape, robbery and murder of a woman in Las Vegas in 1986.

Attorneys for Haberstroh argued that three of the aggravating circumstances to be used to justify the death penalty should not be permitted.

The Supreme Court last August stayed the penalty hearing set for September while it considered the current petition. It now has denied the defense petition and allowed the penalty hearing to go forward.

In July 1986, Donna Kitowski was abducted from Las Vegas and taken to the desert, where she was sexually assaulted and strangled.

Haberstroh’s first trial ended in a hung jury with 11-1 in favor of conviction. In his second trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death. But the Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new penalty hearing.

Defense lawyers argued that the aggravating circumstance of being in prison at the time of the offense should not apply because he was on parole. They said that the aggravating circumstance of a prior violent felony doesn't apply since it involved an escape that did not involve any violence. And they said there are duplicate aggravating circumstances involving the robbery.

They said “Haberstroh will suffer irreparable harm by having to stand trial for a capital case despite the invalid notice of intent to seek death penalty.”