Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010 | 11:19 a.m.
CARSON CITY – Robert Byford, convicted of the murder of an 18-year old girl in the desert outside Las Vegas, has failed to convince the Nevada Supreme Court that the death penalty is unconstitutional.
The court, in a unanimous 35-page opinion today, rejected claims by Byford that his trial and appeal attorneys were ineffective and he deserves a new trial.
Byford, now 39, and Christopher Williams, now 37, were convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Monica Wilkins in 1991. The Supreme Court overturned their convictions after the first trial, but they were convicted at a second trial.
Byford was sentenced to death and Williams received a life term without the possibility of parole.
In its ruling, it said “This court has held that the death penalty does not violate the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment found either in the United States Constitution or the Nevada Constitution.”
At the time of the killing, Byford, then 20 years old, and Williams, who was 17, complained that Wilkins was always “playing games with our heads.” On the night of the murder in March 1991, Wilkins told the two there was a party in the desert outside Las Vegas.
But they didn’t find a party. Williams shot her several times, then Byford took the gun and shot her twice in the head. Byford then got a can of gasoline and poured it on Wilkins and set her afire. Her body was buried later.
Among his claims of errors, Byford said his lawyers failed to adequately object to the move by the district attorney’s office to remove two prospective jurors who opposed the death penalty.
The court said the jurors who were chosen indicated they could consider all the sentencing options.
In another decision, the court overturned the district court decision that massage therapist Ellen Birnbaum was entitled to workers’ compensation after being fired by Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The court ordered the case sent back to the hearings officer to consider more testimony. Birnbaum worked for Caesars for about eight years but then experienced numbness.
She was fired, but one month after her termination, she was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome and she filed her workers' compensation claim.
Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc., which handled the workers' compensation claims for Caesars, denied the claim by Birnbaum.
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