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February 12, 2012

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Defender says too much pressure on judge for killer to get fair hearing

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY — Justices of the Nevada Supreme Court questioned the argument that district judges in rural counties are facing such intense pressure in highly controversial cases that they should step aside.

Justice Michael Douglas says every time a judge makes a ruling he creates a friend and an enemy.

His statement came during oral arguments by federal Deputy Public Defender Michael Pescetta in the case of Robert Ybarra Jr., who was sentenced to death in Ely for the slaying of a 15-year old girl in 1981.

Pescetta has told the Supreme Court that the feeling in White Pine County was so hostile to Ybarra that any local judge would simply destroy his judicial career by ruling in Ybarra’s favor.

But Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre said that could be said of any controversial case.

Pescetta argued, however, that this was an inflammatory case, and a ruling in favor of Ybarra would make the judge an enemy of the entire community.

Justice James Hardesty told Pescetta that the court had already ruled in a 2005 case that raised the same issue. And there is nothing in the record in the District Court that deals with the subject.

White Pine District Attorney Richard Sears said pressure exists in all controversial cases. But he told the court, “The guys that get the pressure are the DAs, not the judges.”

The case is on appeal after a ruling by District Judge Steve Dobrescu that Ybarra was not mentally retarded.

Pescetta said the case of Ybarra was the most notorious in the history of White Pine County. Ybarra was convicted of kidnapping, raping and setting fire to Nancy Griffin in 1981.

In his brief to the court, Pescetta said feelings still run high against Ybarra, 29 years after the killing.

The local newspaper, the Ely Times, ran hostile comments about the case during recent hearings.

The court took the arguments under consideration and will rule later.

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