Nevada man on death row for 30 years granted parole

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 | 1:45 p.m.

CARSON CITY – A man who sat on death row for 30 years for the killing of a Las Vegas woman has been granted parole.

The state Parole Board said Thursday that Ronnie Milligan has a solid release plan, but he must abide by standards and conditions such as getting a job and making periodic reports to his parole officer.

The board also directed that Milligan not drink or go to bars because it appears alcohol was involved in the slaying of 77-year-old Zolihon Voinski, who was stabbed with a screwdriver, hit over the head with a sledgehammer and robbed of $20 in July 1980 in rural western Nevada.

The board said Milligan, while on death row in the state prison in Ely, had a “positive record” and he had no prior major criminal record.

Milligan will be evaluated to determine if he needs counseling for alcoholism.

He will face standard restrictions, such as no weapons or drugs or travel outside Nevada without permission. And he will be required to pay the supervision fees of his parole officer.

At his parole hearing last month, Milligan said he would live with the Brothers of the Holy Rosary in Reno and attend Truckee Meadows Community College.

Milligan, now 60, was one of three people charged with the crime but he was the only one to receive the death penalty.

He told the parole board he didn’t remember the killing, but he was apparently drunk during the slaying of Voinski near Valmy in Humboldt County.

District Judge Richard Wagner overturned Milligan’s death penalty in September last year. He held that there was an error in using the “aggravating circumstances” in both the trial and the penalty hearing.

He cited a 2006 Nevada Supreme Court decision that prohibited district attorneys from using one set of “aggravating circumstances” to seek the highest conviction level and then the same set to get the death penalty.