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Thread: James Biela - Nevada Death Row

  1. #21
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Death row inmate seeks new trial in rape, killing of former Mendocino County woman

    RENO, Nev. — A lawyer for a Nevada man sentenced to death for the 2008 kidnapping, rape and killing of a 19-year-old former Mendocino County woman goes before a Washoe County judge next week in the latest attempt to overturn his convictions in one of the area's highest profile murder cases in decades.

    The Nevada Supreme Court rejected James Biela's appeal in 2012 in the murder of Brianna Denison and sexual assault of two others on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

    Judge Scott Freeman set a status hearing for Thursday and an evidentiary hearing July 11 to consider what defense attorney Edward Reed says are more than 50 grounds for ordering a new trial.

    Among other things, Reed says Biela's public defenders didn't adequately represent him, his Miranda rights were violated and the case should have been moved out of Reno because the extraordinary pre-trial publicity made it impossible to seat an impartial jury.

    "Incredibly, no prospective juror had not heard about this case," Reed wrote in a 107-page supplemental filing seeking a new trial, or alternately a new sentencing hearing.

    Washoe District Judge Robert Perry said when he sentenced Biela to death in June 2010 that the string of attacks had the entire city on edge.

    Denison, a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, was abducted in January 2008 while sleeping on a friend's couch at a residence near the Reno campus just north of the downtown casino district. About a month later, local TV stations broadcast the news conference live when Reno police announced they'd found her body in a field in south Reno.

    Investigators said she was smothered with a pillow, then later raped and strangled with the strap of her best friend's thong underwear. They believed she was the victim of a serial rapist with a fetish for women's panties who had assaulted at least two other college students.

    As a manhunt intensified, blue ribbons in honor of Denison appeared on fences, posters and lapels throughout the Reno area.

    Biela, 34, a former Marine and pipefitter, was arrested that November following a tip from his former girlfriend. In addition to his death sentence, he received four life prison terms on charges related to the other assaults.

    Reed filed initial motions to revisit the case in district court shortly after the Supreme Court rejected Biela's appeal in 2012. He submitted a supplemental motion in May 2015, and since then has been arguing with the district attorney about procedural matters, witnesses and the scope of testimony that will be allowed.

    Biela's original lawyers made many of the same arguments in the Supreme Court appeal, but the justices said they had failed to raise timely objections during the trial.

    Reed says a Reno police detective misled Biela around his right to remain silent when he read him his Miranda rights during an initial interrogation. Police videotape shows Det. David Jenkins told Biela:

    "Even if you elect initially to talk to us you can change your mind at any time you want and we will honor your request immediately and if there is a specific question that you don't want to answer you can say I want to talk to you but don't want to talk to you about that and we will honor your request."

    "The detective's rendition of Miranda was patently flawed," Reed said.

    It's significant, Reed said, because during the trial prosecutors recounted only what Jenkins said next, which was, "I asked him if he had intended to kill this girl and his response was, 'I don't want to answer that.'"

    Reed said Biela's lawyers failed to object to the statement that "undoubtedly" struck the jury as "highly incriminating."

    http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/57...662&artslide=0

  2. #22
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Reno hearing begins in Biela’s bid to get off death row

    RENO — Lawyers for a Nevada death row inmate seeking a new trial after he was convicted of the rape and murder of a college student argued Monday that one of Reno’s highest profile cases in decades should have been moved somewhere else.

    Defendant James Biela’s former public defender Mazie Pusich was the first witness to testify at an evidentiary hearing Monday in Washoe District Court about the extensive pretrial publicity that surrounded the 2008 kidnapping of 19-year-old Brianna Denison from a friend’s home a block from the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

    “It was extraordinary,” said Pusich, recalling the blue ribbons that popped up all over town during a massive search for Denison and the subsequent manhunt for a suspect that police soon dubbed a “serial rapist.”

    “They were everywhere,” Pusich said. “All over town — on signs, on trees, on overpasses. There were bumper stickers and signs in the back of cars.”

    Pusich said every prospective juror had already heard something about the case that ended with Biela’s conviction for murder and the sexual assault of two other young women near the UNR campus.

    She said it was the most pretrial publicity she’d seen in more than 20 years as a public defender. That included the high-profile murder trial for former Reno pawnshop owner Darren Mack, who is serving a life sentence for the 2006 killing of his wife and shooting of a family court judge.

    In 2012, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld Biela’s conviction. He is now asking Washoe County Judge Scott Freeman to grant a new trial based in part on evidence not presented at the first trial.

    His new lawyers, Christopher Oram of Las Vegas and Edward Reed of Reno, argue in a motion for post-trial relief that the original judge’s refusal to grant a request for a change of venue is one of the reasons Biela didn’t receive a fair trial. They also claim his Miranda rights were violated and his original team of public defenders didn’t adequately represent him.

    Pusich acknowledged that in hindsight they could have handled some things differently and may not have initially recognized the significance of some details in tens of thousands of pages of testimony, interrogation and police interview transcripts.

    “We received 37,000 pages of information from the district attorney,” she testified Monday.

    Biela’s lawyers wrote in court filings before the hearing that a Reno police detective misled Biela around his right to remain silent when he read him his Miranda rights during an initial interrogation. Police videotape shows Det. David Jenkins told Biela:

    “Even if you elect initially to talk to us you can change your mind at any time you want and we will honor your request immediately and if there is a specific question that you don’t want to answer you can say I want to talk to you but don’t want to talk to you about that and we will honor your request.”

    That is significant, Biela’s lawyers say, because during the trial prosecutors recounted only what Jenkins said next, which was, “I asked him if he had intended to kill this girl and his response was, ‘I don’t want to answer that.’”


    Oram said Jenkins had suggested Biela could “evoke a constitutional right that didn’t exist.”

    Pusich agreed that part of the trial was especially damaging to the defense.

    “It made it look like Jimmy was hiding something,” she said, noting that if she had it to do over, she would have tried to have Biela’s statement suppressed.

    The hearing is expected to continue into next week.

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/ne...-get-death-row

  3. #23
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Reno man denied new trial in 2008 rape, murder near UNR

    RENO, Nev. (AP) - A judge in Reno has refused to grant a new trial for a man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old college student nearly eight years ago.

    Washoe District Judge Scott Freeman said Thursday that James Biela's lawyers failed to prove he was denied a fair trial when he was convicted of killing Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two other women near the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

    Among other things, Biela's lawyers argued the case should have been moved out of Reno because of unprecedented pre-trial publicity.

    Judge Freeman says there's no evidence Biela failed to receive effective representation during trial or subsequent appeal.

    He says there was overwhelming evidence for the jury to find Biela guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

    http://www.ktvn.com/story/32792286/l...ow-argues-case
    "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

  4. #24
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    April 24, 2019

    Biela loses latest appeal of his death sentence for murdering Brianna Denison

    The Nevada Supreme Court has unanimously rejected James Biela’s second appeal seeking to overturn his conviction in the murder of Brianna Denison.

    Biela was convicted of first degree murder and sexual assault as well as first degree kidnapping. He kidnapped the 19-year-old who was sleeping on a couch of a friend’s residence near the University of Nevada Reno campus Jan. 21, 2008. Her remains were not discovered until weeks later in a ravine in south Reno.

    During that investigation, Biela was linked to the sexual assaults of two other young women near UNR. He was also convicted of assaulting those two victims and sentenced to death.

    The Supreme Court has already upheld the conviction and sentence. Biela challenged his convictions and sentence this time arguing he received ineffective assistance of counsel, which the district court denied after an evidentiary hearing.

    All seven justices rejected his arguments that the DNA samples collected from Denison’s remains, from the residence where she was kidnapped and from one of the other two victims were too weak to connect him to the crime. The DNA from the door handle at that residence was matched to the swabs taken from one of the other victims, connecting Biela to that crime as well.

    “He offered no evidence at the postconviction hearing that counsel could have presented to undermine the DNA and other evidence implicating him in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder,” the court wrote.

    But the justices agreed with Biela’s lawyer that his trial counsel should have objected to the state argument that phone records placed Biela near the place where one of the other two victims was kidnapped, pointing out that he used his cellphone from several miles away 90 minutes before the attack.

    They said, however, Biela failed to demonstrate prejudice and the brief argument didn’t make the proceedings so unfair as to deny due process.

    They also pointed out that Biela left town promptly after Denison’s body was found and disposed of the vehicle that matched fibers found on her clothing. The justices concluded that there was ample evidence of Biela’s involvement in Denison’s murder and evidence connecting him to the other two victims.

    In addition, the Supreme Court denied a petition for reconsideration by Frank Matylinsky. He has been in prison for first degree murder committed in Reno since December 1983.

    https://www.recordcourier.com/news/b...ianna-denison/

  5. #25
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Nevada Supreme Court rejects latest death row appeal of former Mendocino County woman's killer

    By Scott Sonner
    The Press Democrat

    RENO, Nev. — The Nevada Supreme Court has denied a Reno man's latest bid to get off death row for the 2008 rape and killing of a 19-year-old college student from Mendocino that became one of the highest-profile cases in the city's history.

    The justices unanimously rejected James Biela's motion for a rehearing of the appeal they denied in April seeking a new penalty phase of his trial in the kidnapping and murder of Brianna Denison and sexual assault of two others near the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

    Biela's lawyers argued his original public defenders should have objected to improper evidence about his history of domestic violence and animal abuse. The justices agreed the defenders erred, but they said barring that evidence wouldn't have mattered.

    A judge signed a warrant for the 38-year-old former Marine and pipefitter's death Aug. 18, 2010, but his execution has been on hold pending appeals since 2013.

    His lawyers argued the jury that sentenced him was "severely prejudiced" by "highly damaging information" presented without proper notice to the defense team. It included evidence Biela abused an ex-girlfriend, swung a knife at someone and broke a puppy's leg.

    "Had the jury not heard the extensive evidence in aggravation presented, which included animal abuse and domestic violence, the jury would not have sentenced Mr. Biela to death," the rehearing request said.

    The justices disagreed and denied the request July 5 without explanation.

    While the evidence was damaging, "there is no reasonable probability that the outcome of the penalty hearing would have been different if trial counsel had objected and the trial court had excluded the evidence," they wrote in April. "The jury was faced with a defendant who had engaged in a pattern of violent conduct that had escalated to murder."

    They also rejected Biela's argument his trial should have been moved out of Reno because of pretrial publicity.

    Denison, a sophomore at California's Santa Barbara City College, was abducted in January 2008 while sleeping at a friend's residence near the Reno campus. A month later, local TV stations broadcast the news conference live when police announced they had found her body in a field in south Reno.

    Investigators said she was raped and strangled with her best friend's thong underwear. They believed she was the victim of a serial rapist with a fetish for women's panties who had assaulted at least two other college students.

    As a manhunt intensified, blue ribbons in honor of Denison appeared on fences and lapels throughout Reno. Biela was arrested that November following a tip from his ex-girlfriend. DNA testing tied him to the crime scene.

    His current lawyers, Christopher Oram and Edward Reed, said in an earlier appeal the only case in northern Nevada with pretrial publicity rivaling this one was Darren Mack's conviction for the 2006 killing of his ex-wife and attempted assassination of the judge who handled their divorce.

    That trial eventually was moved to Las Vegas. Oram said this one should have been too.

    "Hate permeated this society," he said.

    The Supreme Court acknowledged in April that while all the prospective jurors indicated they had followed news updates of the case, the court transcript doesn't indicate media coverage "had become so saturated as to overcome the presumption of impartiality."

    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9...latest?sba=AAS
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

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  6. #26
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On January 15, 2020, Biela filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ne...cv00026/141197

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