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Thread: Will Onie Sitton - Nevada

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Will Onie Sitton - Nevada




    LAS VEGAS -- The Clark County District Attorney’s office announced this week it will pursue the death penalty if guilty verdicts are delivered in three high-profile cases.

    They include Harold Montage, a Las Vegas man charged with killing a baby with an ax and critically wounding the child’s mother and his sister-in-law. Prosecutors also cited the case against Gregory Hover and Richard Freeman. The men are accused of committing a series of robberies and killing two people, including a 21-year-old woman who worked at the Hooters Hotel and Casino.The third case involves the beating death of a 68-year-old man in October. Will Sitton, 46, faces charges including murder, robbery and burglary.

    http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/23231519/detail.html

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    August 8, 2011

    Murder trial delayed for couple accused in bloody stomping death of Las Vegas man

    Death penalty case continued until March 2012 in district court

    By Dave Toplikar
    The Las Vegas Sun

    A murder trial that was to have started today for a man and a woman accused in the robbery, beating and stomping death of Brian Haskell, a 68-year-old Las Vegas man, has been delayed until next spring.

    At the request of attorneys, Clark County District Judge Douglas Smith has reset the trial for Will Sitton, 48, and Jacquie Schafer (also known as Jackie Napoli), 47, for March 26, 2012. Both are being held in the Clark County Detention Center without bail.

    Sitton and Schafer are charged with multiple felonies including murder, robbery and burglary. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both of them.

    According to an arrest report, Haskell was found dead with bloody footwear prints on his body in November 2009 in his condominium near Rainbow and Oakey boulevards. Prosecutors believe he had died about two weeks earlier.

    A third defendant, Sitton's brother, Robert Sitton, 34, testified against the two during a preliminary hearing in March 2010. The younger Sitton made a plea agreement in February 2010 to testify against his brother and Schafer in exchange for pleading guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder of a victim 60 or older and conspiracy to commit robbery. Robert Sitton is scheduled to have a status check on his case on Sept. 14.

    According to a police report, officers were called Nov. 14, 2009, to do a welfare check on Haskell and found his decomposing body in the master bedroom of the residence at 1400 Santa Margarita, Unit D.

    Homicide detectives said neighbors told them they had seen a woman, later identified as Schafer, move into Haskell's unit about the end of August 2009.

    Officers said letters in the residence indicated there was an ongoing dispute between Haskell and Schafer.

    Investigators said neighbors told them during the time Schafer lived there that a man, later identified as Will Sitton, started hanging around and appeared to be Schafer's boyfriend.

    A neighbor told police that on Oct. 29, 2009, Sitton and another man helped to move Schafer "in haste" out of the unit in garbage bags. One of the neighbors spoke with the second man, who told him he was helping his brother move his girlfriend out of the unit.

    Officers said when Haskell's body was examined, detectives noted there were footwear patterns in blood on the body. They said there were two distinct patterns on the body and possibly a third print. Bloody footwear prints were also on debris on the floor of the bedroom next to the body, investigators said.

    The police report said an autopsy found that Haskell died from blunt force trauma.

    According to the police report, when officers interviewed Schafer, she told them that Haskell had made several passes at her and grabbed her several times. She said she had told Will Sitton about the passes and Sitton had threatened to "slap Haskell around," but she had asked him to just help her move out of the residence.

    During a preliminary hearing, Robert Sitton said he remembered seeing his brother and Schafer both beat Haskell.

    Along with the slaying, the defendants are charged with taking Haskell's 1998 Cadillac STS and also other items belonging to Haskell, including checks, a laptop computer and a television.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...cused-stompin/

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Man testifies against brother at death penalty trial — VIDEO

    Robert Sitton's testimony could help determine whether his brother is sentenced to death.

    Prosecutors say the siblings killed a 68-year-old man, viciously beating him with their fists and stomping on his back, leaving him to die inside his northwest valley home.

    Robert Sitton, 38, quickly turned on his older brother and agreed to cooperate with authorities. He could be released from behind bars in as little as five years.

    Will Sitton, 52, faces the death penalty.

    On Monday, almost six years to the day after Brian Haskell was killed in his northwest valley bedroom, the younger Sitton took the witness stand and described the killing in detail.

    He said he received a call from his brother on Oct. 29, 2009 saying they would move Will Sitton's girlfriend, Jacquie Schafer, 51, out of the condominium where she was living with Haskell.

    "My first instinct was I thought I was going to have to fight," Robert Sitton told jurors.

    When they arrived at the complex near Rainbow and Oakey boulevards, Schafer had already packed some of her things. Will Sitton told his brother to put on a pair of mechanic's gloves.

    They stood by Haskell's bedroom door, and listened to Haskell and Schafer talk. The younger Sitton said he checked to see if the door was locked just before his brother pushed it open.

    Haskell was sitting on his bed in a robe and boxers.

    Robert Sitton said his brother "squats down in front of him, and says, 'You got something coming,' and gave him a right hook to the eye."

    Schafer started rifling through Haskell's room, retrieving $80 from a jacket pocket.

    She also punched him in the face, nose, mouth and eye, claiming he had groped her in front of her daughter, Sitton testified.

    The brothers then took turns attacking Haskell, who attempted to fight back, using their fists and stomping on his back until he stopped breathing. The younger Sitton admitted to punching Haskell "five or six times" in the face and holding his foot on Haskell's back.

    The trio stole his black Cadillac, flat-screen television, a few coins, cellphone, cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels, according to his testimony.

    Prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth asked why he decided to testify against his brother.

    "It was just time to man up," he said. "I manned up and spoke the truth." The crime, he added, was "eating at my conscience."

    He said he wouldn't have been involved in the killing if it weren't for his brother.

    "I feel that I shouldn't have been there," the younger Sitton said. "I feel that he put me in a position that's between a rock and a hard place."

    Will Sitton is on trial alongside Schafer, also known as Jackie Napoli. Both face a series of charges, including first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and conspiracy.

    Defense lawyers for the two both tried to paint the younger Sitton as a liar. Immediately after the killing, he wanted to leave the state and escape prosecution. He admitted on the stand Monday that he lied in his initial statements to police. He said he was "blackout drunk" during the killing but remembers the violence in vivid detail.

    "You initially wanted to flee," Schafer's attorney, Josh Tomsheck, asked Sitton. "You wanted to avoid responsibility?"

    "Yes," he replied.

    "You took great steps, by your own admission, to cover your own tracks because you wanted to get away with what you had done."

    Through further questioning, attorney Christopher Oram, who represents the elder sibling, tried to show that Robert Sitton acted alone in the killing.

    "Do you see, everything you've described, sir, only took one person?" Oram said. "You see that, don't you?"

    Haskell's body was found about two weeks after the beating.

    A jury could decide by next week whether Will Sitton should be executed.

    Prosecutors say they are seeking capital punishment for Sitton in part because of his violent past. In Clark County, he has three felony and gross misdemeanor convictions dating back to 1994, according to court records.

    In each of those cases, sexual assault charges were pleaded down to lesser counts. Schafer faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    In exchange for his testimony, Robert Sitton agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years to life, plus a mandatory additional one to 20 years because of the victim's age.

    He has been incarcerated at the Clark County Detention Center since Nov. 2009, and could be released by 2020 if given the minimum sentence. After the trial, he hopes to serve the rest of his prison time in Oklahoma, where other family members live.

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/la...ty-trial-video

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    Jury deliberates case of couple charged in 2009 beating death

    By David Ferrara
    The Las Vegas Review-Journal

    With the help of his brother, Will Sitton viciously beat a 68-year-old man at his Las Vegas home, rendering him unconscious at least twice.

    Sitton then stomped on Brian Haskell's back "and knocked him out for the last time," prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth told jurors as Sitton's capital murder trial came to a close Friday.

    Sitton's younger brother, Robert, admitted to beating Brian Haskell and became the prosecution's star witness. Will Sitton's girlfriend, Jacquie Schafer, is also on trial in the killing.

    Jurors began deliberating the case late Friday afternoon and are expected to resume Monday morning.

    In addition to murder charges, Will Sitton and Jacquie Schafer face several counts including robbery, burglary, conspiracy and forgery.

    Prosecutors said that after the Oct. 29, 2009, beating, the couple stole Haskell's laptop and television, cashed several checks from his account, accessed his bank information and used his cellphone.

    Schafer had been living with Haskell before he asked her to move out. She accused him of groping her in front of her daughter and physically attacked Haskell before the brothers beat him, prosecutors said.

    Robert Sitton testified that Haskell was unconscious but still breathing when the trio left the northwest valley apartment.

    Haskell's bedroom was the scene of the "bloodbath," the prosecutor said. A medical examiner said he could have lived for at least three days longer. His body was found Nov. 14, 2009, with at least two different types of shoe prints on his back. Bones were broken in his nose, ribs and spine.

    Police found Haskell's black Cadillac less than 2 miles from Schafer's mother's home.

    Defense lawyers tried to pin the slaying on Robert Sitton, saying he acted alone in the beating. Haskell became upset after seeing Robert Sitton drink alcohol from the apartment and the two started to quarrel, the attorneys said. After the beating, the younger Sitton changed out of his bloody shoes and stepped into Haskell's.

    "Robert Sitton committed this crime alone in an unconsidered, rash, drunken impulse," said Christopher Oram, who represents Will Sutton. "It's really quite simple."

    Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich tried to discredit that theory.

    "How can alcohol be a motive?" she said. "Brian never left his room. Brian had no idea that anybody was drinking his alcohol that day."

    Robert Sitton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and could be eligible for parole in about five years. District Judge Douglas Smith, who is presiding over the trial, is slated to determine his sentence.

    Oram called the younger brother "a habitual liar" and a "miserable human being."

    Josh Tomsheck, who represents Schafer, said there was no evidence that tied his client to Haskell's death.

    "This case is fraught with mistakes and oversights based on assumptions by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department," Tomsheck said. "And it's filled with lies out of the mouth of Robert Sitton. ... How many brothers are going to say that my brother did this? Who's going to do that, unless they're trying to minimize their involvement."

    If Will Sitton and Schafer are convicted of first-degree murder, the same jury will decide their sentences. Sitton faces the death penalty, in part for his violent past. He has a history of sex-related convictions in Clark County. Schafer faces life in prison without parole.

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/la...-beating-death
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Judge declares mistrial in Las Vegas death penalty case

    A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the death penalty trial for Will Sitton, who faces murder, burglary and robbery charges alongside his girlfriend, Jacquie Schafer, in the killing of Brian Haskell.

    Prosecutors said Sitton viciously beat the 68-year-old man at his Las Vegas home, rendering him unconscious at least twice, after Schafer punched Haskell in the face.

    Sitton's younger brother, Robert, admitted to beating Brian Haskell and became the prosecution's star witness in the two-week trial.

    After gathering briefly late Friday afternoon to select a foreperson, the jury started deliberating Monday morning.

    Lawyers quickly learned that the jurors had reviewed transcripts that were not admitted as evidence in the case. The documents contained statements by Schafer that implicated Will Sitton.

    After interviewing five jurors about the evidence, District Judge Douglas Smith declared a mistrial and set a new court hearing for next month.

    Prosecutors said that after the Oct. 29, 2009, beating, the couple stole Haskell's laptop and television, cashed several checks from his account, accessed his bank information and used his cellphone.

    Schafer had been living with Haskell before he asked her to move out. She accused him of groping her in front of her daughter and physically attacked Haskell before the brothers beat him, prosecutors said.

    Robert Sitton testified that Haskell was unconscious but still breathing when the trio left the northwest valley apartment.

    Haskell's bedroom was the scene of the "bloodbath," prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth said. A medical examiner said he could have lived for three days longer. His body was found Nov. 14, 2009, with at least two different types of shoe prints on his back. Bones were broken in his nose, ribs and spine.

    Police found Haskell's black Cadillac less than two miles from Schafer's mother's home.

    Defense lawyers tried to pin the slaying on Robert Sitton, saying he acted alone in the beating, and tried to paint him as a liar.

    Robert Sitton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and could be eligible for parole in about five years. Smith, who is presiding over the trial, is slated to determine his sentence.

    Will Sitton faces a possible death sentence, in part for his violent past. He has a history of sex-related convictions in Clark County. Schafer faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/la...h-penalty-case

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Las Vegas jury chooses death penalty for man convicted in 2009 killing

    53-year-old man with a decades-long criminal past was sentenced to death Monday for his role in a 2009 slaying.

    Brian Haskell lay dehydrating for upward of three days before he died after being brutally beaten in his northwest valley home, prosecutors said.

    Convicted felon Will Sitton had leveled the most severe blows, punching, kicking and stomping on the 68-year-old Haskell as he crumpled and fell unconscious in his bedroom. Sitton’s girlfriend, Jacquie Schafer, and his brother, Robert, also participated in the attack, according to prosecutors.

    A jury of eight women and four men found that aggravating factors in Sitton’s past — three rape convictions, an attempted murder conviction, an attempted arson, a DUI, along with his checkered behavior behind bars — outweighed mitigating factors that could have spared him from capital punishment, including pleas from his mother and his ex-wife.

    In closing arguments of Sitton’s penalty hearing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich said Sitton had “not a speck of remorse” for any of his crimes.

    Sitton made an obscene gesture at jurors as they exited the courtroom Monday.

    “Nothing like being railroaded,” he said before being escorted from the room.

    Days earlier, the same jury convicted Sitton and Schafer of first-degree murder. Schafer, 39, is not facing the death penalty and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

    Robert Sitton, 39, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2010 and testified against his brother at trial.

    Will Sitton first faced a jury in the case a year ago, but District Judge Douglas Smith declared a mistrial after jurors inadvertently received evidence they were not supposed to have reviewed.

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/h...d-2009-killing
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #7
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Sitton is appealing his sentence right now to the Nevada Supreme Court. I can't find when he was sentenced, but he was at some point.

    http://caseinfo.nvsupremecourt.us/pu...do?csIID=43243

  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    April 24, 2019

    Nevada Supreme Court slams Clark County judge’s decision

    By David Ferrara
    The Las Vegas Review-Journal

    The Nevada Supreme Court chastised retired District Judge Douglas Smith in a recent decision that reversed a man’s murder conviction and death sentence.

    Justices issued the decision Friday, a week after Smith retired from the Clark County bench. The ruling centered on the 2015 murder trial of Will Sitton.

    “Unfortunately, this is just one in a growing list of cases where this court has reversed a judgment of conviction based on Judge Smith’s failure to follow well-established law,” Justice James Hardesty wrote in his concurring opinion. “Most troubling, Judge Smith tends to repeat the same errors, even after he has been informed of the nature of the error.”

    Hardesty’s opinion focused solely on Smith and included a page-long footnote citing 16 cases that had been reversed after the high court found errors in Smith’s decisions.

    “This pattern not only increases the burden on a criminal justice system that is already pushed to its limits,” Hardesty wrote, “it delays justice and in many instances forces crime victims and their family members to sit through repeated trials during which they must relive the worst moments of their lives.”

    The justice also referenced two other cases that were not reversed because defendants either did not object at trial or failed to demonstrate harmful prejudice on appeal.

    Contacted about the decision by phone on Tuesday, Smith said he had not read it.

    As a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter began to recite Hardesty’s opinion, Smith said, “I have no comment. Thanks.”

    The high court found that Sitton had been denied a fundamental right to confront his accusers during his trial before Smith, in which a jury found Sitton guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to die.

    Smith retired April 12 after a 23-year stint on the bench in Las Vegas. He was first elected as justice of the peace in 1995, serving until he was elected to District Court in 2008.

    He has said he plans to continue to serve as a senior judge, filling temporary vacancies in both Justice Court and District Court.

    Through a court spokeswoman, Chief District Judge Linda Bell declined to comment on whether the Supreme Court decision could affect Smith’s status as a senior judge. Chief Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum did not return a phone message about the opinion.

    Criminal defense attorney Dayvid Figler said any judge who violates a defendant’s constitutional rights should be disqualified from handling criminal matters.

    The reversal revolved around testimony from a Las Vegas police detective who questioned Sitton’s girlfriend and co-defendant, Jacquie Schafer, about the October 2009 beating of 68-year-old Brian Haskell.

    Because Schafer did not testify during the trial, in which both were convicted, Sitton’s attorneys were unable to question her about the statements she made to police that implicated her boyfriend.

    Schafer and Sitton, who has a decadeslong criminal past that includes multiple sexual assaults, also were convicted of robbery, burglary, conspiracy and forgery.

    Sitton’s brother, Robert, testified against the pair, saying he also participated in the attack. Robert Sitton, 39, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2010.

    Will Sitton contended that his brother committed the murder.

    “This was not a case where the evidence against the defendant was overwhelming,” the high court wrote. “Robert’s credibility was suspect without the corroboration offered by Schafer’s statements.”

    Will Sitton’s attorney, Christopher Oram, said he is “very pleased” that his client, now 56, will receive a new trial. “It also means that we won’t have a joint trial,” Oram said. “And they won’t be able to use her statement, so it puts Will in a much better situation.”

    Prosecutors declined to comment on the reversal. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said in a text message that the “matter is under review.”

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...ision-1648073/

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