Court upholds murder conviction for man who drove getaway car

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011 | 1:41 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Abell Dieudonne, convicted of murder and robbery charges in driving a getaway car in the killing of a Las Vegas woman.

Dieudonne pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery with the use of a deadly weapon. The prosecution charged that Dieudonne and Semairo McNair conspired to rob Giovanna Simmons and burglarize her house.

McNair entered the home, took money and marijuana from Simmons and shot and killed her while Dieudonne acted as the lookout and getaway driver.

Dieudonne pleaded guilty before District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez and the district attorney’s office agreed not to oppose the sentence for the conspiracy charge running concurrently to the sentences for the other charges.

The case was then transferred to District Judge Douglas Smith, who imposed a sentence of 120 months to life on the second degree murder charge, 12-72 months on the conspiracy to commit robbery charge and two consecutive terms of 60-80 months on the robbery with use of a deadly weapon count.

Smith initially ordered all of the counts to run consecutively, but then decided to make the conspiracy sentence concurrent to the robbery and murder terms.

Dieudonne, through his lawyer, appealed, arguing that he had a right to be sentenced by Gonzalez, who accepted his guilty plea.

The Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Michael Cherry, said there is no such right unless there was an express agreement to be sentenced by the judge who accepted the plea.