Las Vegas Criminal Defense Blog

Last month, a fifty-four year old former chef got a new trial date after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the murder conviction in his first trial over faulty jury instructions. He’s accused of stabbing a man in 1993 in a Circus Circus – Reno hotel room they shared. The accused argued that Nevada self-defense law exonerates him.

The two men reportedly met while on a bus from San Francisco, where they shared cocaine. The fight reportedly started after the accused saw the other man in the room allegedly using his knives to make heroin. The victim was later found in the bathtub with 17 stab wounds.

Nevada self-defense law allows someone in immediate danger of being hurt by someone else to fight back. You’re also allowed to fight back if the aggressor is threatening your family or someone close to you. However, Nevada self-defense law requires that you use no more force than necessary to fend off the attack.

Read more about the story at http://www.rgj.com/article/20100219/NEWS01/2190399/1321/news

The Nevada Education Department reports that an increased number of high school students are depressed and engaging in destructive behavior, including smoking marijuana. Nearly forty percent of the students surveyed said they used pot, which is a significant increase from 2007. Experts surmise that these trends are a result of the recession and the kids’ parents’ stress rubbing off on them.

Marijuana sales law in Nevada makes it a category B felony to sell or grow marijuana in the state. (However, if the amount of marijuana in question is one hundred pounds or more, then trafficking law applies instead of marijuana sales law in Nevada.) The penalties for marijuana sales law in Nevada increases with each successive offense:

For a first offense of selling marijuana in Nevada, the defendant usually receives probation and a suspended sentence, but the judge may order one to six years in Nevada State Prison with an optional fine of up to $20,000. A second offense allows the judge to order two to ten years in prison with an optional fine of up to $20,000. And for a third offense, the defendant faces three to fifteen years in prison with the optional $20,000 fine. These sentences may be increased if the defendant allegedly sold to minors or sold near minors.

Last week twenty-six year old Rene Zambadajimenez was arrested for breaking Nevada murder law by shooting thirty-seven year old Ulises Mendez-Rodriguez near Route 157 and the 95. Reportedly, Zambadajimenez was driving with Mendez-Rodriguez before pulling over, at which point Zambadajimenez allegedly shot him five times with a 12-gauge shotgun. He then fled in the car, and Mendez-Rodriguez died shortly thereafter.

When police later executed a search warrant on Zambadajimenez’s apartment, they found the shotgun and some of Mendez-Rodriguez’s belongings. Zambadajimenez even reportedly admitted to the killing. Homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said the murder was drug related: “It was a fairly typical narcotic-related dope rip-off.”

Nevada murder law divides homicide into first and second degree. First degree murder involves cases where the perpetrator killed with malice aforethought or committed the killing while carrying out another felony. Second degree includes all other kinds of murder. Penalties for breaking Nevada murder law in the first degree include death, life in prison, or fifty years in prison, and the judge may also grant parole after twenty years.

Gregory Thomas has been arrested and jailed for allegedly leaving a threatening voicemail earlier this month to Boulder City Manager Vicki Mayes. He reportedly said in the message that he’d rape and murder Mayes, kill her husband, and kill anyone who prevented him from attending the November 10 City Council meeting.

After Thomas’s arrest, he reportedly told police that he was frustrated with the city manager after failing to secure affordable housing in Boulder City. He was charged with harassment and two counts of possessing drug paraphernalia in Nevada (NRS 453.566). He was booked in the Henderson Jail on $250,000 bond.

Continue reading "Man Who Allegedly Threatened Boulder City Manager Arrested" »

Today, the attorney for one of the Honolulu police officers arrested in August for breaking NRS 453.336 (Nevada simple marijuana possession law) pleaded not guilty on behalf of his client. The cop was also charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

NRS 453.336 makes it a crime to possess any quantity of marijuana for personal use. If you’re convicted of possessing one ounce or less, the penalties are relatively lenient for a first and second offense, which are just misdemeanors. A third offense is a gross misdemeanor, and a fourth is a category E felony.

However, if you’re convicted of possessing more than one ounce of pot, NRS 453.336 makes a first offense a category E felony. However, if you’ve never been convicted of drug crimes before, a good lawyer can secure you a suspended sentence and probation.

Patricia Solis, who was charged with breaking Nevada felony DUI law last year, is still at large after bonding out. A bench warrant was issued early this year, though it is believed she may have returned to her home country of Nicaragua.

On November 8th, 2008, Solis allegedly crashed her truck into Rosalyn Gilson’s car while under the influence of drugs. Gilson died instantly. Later tests showed Solis to be high, and a search of her car uncovered bottles of morphine and hydrocodine.

Nevada Felony DUI law covers automobile accidents where a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol causes death or substantial bodily injury to someone else. The penalties for breaking Nevada felony DUI law include two to twenty years in prison and a fine of $2,000 to $5,000.

The Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada, whose mission is to reform the harsh marijuana laws in Nevada, announced today that they will give $10,000 to any state resident who can demonstrate that alcohol is safer than marijuana. Specifically, contestants have to disprove the following three statements using peer-reviewed papers and government studies as proof:

1. Alcohol is significantly more toxic than marijuana, making death by overdose far more likely with alcohol.


2. The health effects from long-term alcohol consumption cause tens of thousands of more deaths in the U.S. annually than the health effects from the long-term consumption of marijuana.


3. Violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by alcohol is far more prevalent in the U.S. than violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by marijuana only.

Continue reading "Marijuana Policy Project to Give $10,000 to Anyone Who Proves Alcohol is Safer than Marijuana" »

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons announced Friday that he will be creating a Nevada Crime Commission, which will examine state crime problems and suggest creative ways to fight them. Gibbons explained, “One of the primary purposes of government is to protect citizens from criminals. I plan to create the Nevada Crime Commission to explore new ways to reduce crime in Nevada and find real solutions to ‘current day’ crime problems.”

In its effort to understand and fight crime trends in Nevada, the commission will be able to create its own task forces and seek funding and grants. Some of the specific crime areas the Nevada Crime Commission will target include mortgage fraud, Medicare/Medicaid fraud, internet crime, gang crimes, prescription drug abuse, and immigration crimes in Nevada.

The Nevada Crime Commission will be made up of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, various business and community leaders, activists, and representatives of various crime victims groups. It will also include appropriate federal agencies; for instance, members from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be invited to participate to help combat immigration crimes in Nevada.

July’s arrest of African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., by a Caucasian police officer reinvigorated the debate about whether racial bias influences police behavior. Two weeks ago, several police departments in Nevada held a candid panel discussion at Las Vegas City Hall on the issue.

Although officers conceded that some police harbored a bias, they assured the audience they’re doing everything to counteract it. Furthermore, some drug crime in Nevada statistics that appear to be the result of racial profiling are completely innocent: The fact that more minorities than Caucasians are incarcerated for crack cocaine is simply because it’s a drug crime in Nevada more frequently committed by minorities. (Caucasians, on the other hand, more frequently commit possession of powder cocaine, which carries less severe penalties.)

Other discussions and workshops on the controversy of racial profiling by police officers are being organized by the NAACP. The next one will be sometime in November.