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Thread: Ricky David Sechrest - Nevada

  1. #1
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    Ricky David Sechrest - Nevada




    Facts of the Crime:

    Convicted and sentenced to death for the bludgeoning murders of ten-year-old Maggie Schindler and nine-year-old Carly Villa, who disappeared from the Meadowood Mall Ice Arena in May 1983 and were found in shallow graves in June of that year.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Court overturns death penalty

    Death row inmate Ricky David Sechrest, turned down 10 times in his appeals over the years, finally won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which ordered a new penalty hearing.

    Sechrest, now 47 and in prison in Ely, was convicted in 1983 of the kidnapping and murder of Maggie Weaver, 10 and Carly Villa, 9, whose bodies were found in a remote area east of Reno.

    He was sentenced to death. But the appeals court, which had denied a previous appeal of Sechrest, ruled Friday that the prosecution had committed an error during the penalty phase by continually saying the killer needs to be put to death or he will eventually be released to harm other children.

    The court also ruled the defense attorney was deficient by permitting his defense psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Gerow to testify for the prosecution at the penalty hearing. It said the testimony of Gerow was "some of the most damaging" in swaying the jury to return the death penalty.

    The court said there should be a new penalty hearing for Sechrest, who was 22 at the time of the slaying.

    (source: Las Vegas Sun)

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    Death sentence overturned

    Condemned inmate Ricky Sechrest's death sentence for the 1983 beating deaths of 2 Reno girls was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    The San Francisco-based appeals court said Sechrest's death sentence couldn't stand because his rights were violated by "false, inflammatory statements" and "gross misconduct" by a prosecutor during his trial.

    The prosecutor "misled the jurors to believe that if they did not impose the death penalty, Sechrest could be released on parole and would kill again," the court said, adding that the trial judge "did nothing to stop the prosecutor from making these erroneous assertions."

    The court also said Sechrest had inadequate legal counsel, noting that some of the most damaging testimony during the penalty phase of his trial was elicited by his own lawyer—from a witness the attorney had originally selected and could have prevented from testifying.

    The case was remanded to lower courts in Reno, where the federal court said lawyers for Sechrest could try to have his murder convictions overturned.

    If the convictions stand, the appeals court said a lesser sentence could be imposed or another penalty phase proceeding would be needed. In the meantime, the court said Sechrest must be removed from death row at Ely State Prison.

    Sechrest got the death sentence after confessing to killing Maggie Schindler, 10, and Carly Villa, 9, after taking the girls from an ice-skating arena. The girls' bludgeoned bodies were found in a shallow grave by a hunter in hills east of Reno.

    Sechrest, the grandson of the woman who babysat one of the girls, admitted he tricked the girls into his car and drove them to the isolated area but said he didn't intend to kill them.

    He claimed one of the girls panicked and he hit her with a shovel. Thinking she was dead, he then murdered the other girl. When he discovered the first girl was still alive, he beat her again with the shovel until she was dead.

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    January 11, 2009

    Reno family angry at reversal of death penalty for killer of daughters

    An appeal court’s ruling brought the scene back like it was yesterday.

    Lois “Cookie” Brown’s 9-year-old daughter, Carly Villa, was picking out red tights and leg warmers for her trip to the Meadowood Ice Arena with her friend, 10-year-old Maggie Schindler on a morning in 1983. Carly’s older brother Davy would have gone with them, Brown recalled, but he was grounded that day for a bad grade.

    But by the evening, the girls were missing, and soon the community was searching fields and putting up posters to find them. Twenty-four days later, their bodies were found in a shallow grave. They had been severely beaten, and Maggie wore only panties.

    Several months later, a jury said Ricky Sechrest was their killer and should be sentenced to death.

    But last month, a federal appeals court threw out that decision — citing “gross misconduct” by the prosecutor — and also called into question whether the guilty verdict should stand.

    Now Carly’s family waits and questions when it will end.

    “Every time you think it’s over, it’s like a scab that gets picked at. They won’t let go,” Brown said in the living room of her Cold Springs home, surrounded by childhood photographs of Carly and her son.

    Brown worries for the mother of Brianna Denison, the college student raped and murdered early last year. Prosecutors announced last week that they will seek capital punishment for the James Biela, the man charged with her death and two other sexual assaults.

    If Biela is convicted and sentenced to death, “is she going to have to worry that in 25 years he’ll be let off?” Brown asked.

    “You’ve got a confession, you’ve got all this stuff. Where’s the justice?” asked John Brown, Cookie Brown’s husband. “How does the justice system work? It’s frustrating.”

    Dave Villa, Carly’s biological father who lives in Lancaster, Calif., said his biggest fear is that Sechrest might be released.

    “Let him out on the street again to kill? Are people willing to let that happen?” Villa asked. “I’m hoping he stays in prison. I hope they put him in the general population and that there’s still a bounty on his head. I know what they do to child molesters. In Nevada, they don’t like child molesters.”

    Maggie Schindler’s parents are no longer living.

    [story continues here http://www.rgj.com/article/20090111/...Fbreakingnews]

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Nevada seems to be taking its time with this one and there's nothing in the media. Anyone got any updates for this guy?

  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On December 15, 2014, oral argument will be heard before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the denial of Sechrest's habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction of two murders and kidnapping.

    http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/calendar...2015&year=2014

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Killer of Northern Nevada girls dies while serving sentence

    Kolo TV

    RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - A man convicted of killing two local girls has died.

    The Nevada Department of Corrections reports 56-year-old Ricky Sechrest died at Carson Tahoe Hospital November 30, 2017.

    Sechrest had been housed in the Regional Medical Facility at Northern Nevada Correctional Center before being admitted to the hospital.

    An autopsy will be scheduled.

    Sechrest was 22 years old when he kidnapped and murdered 10-year-old Maggie Schindler and 9-year-old Carly Villa in 1983, bludgeoning them with a shovel and leaving their bodies in Lagomarsino Canyon east of Reno. He was sentenced to death.

    His case crept through the court system on appeal in the years that followed. In 1994 he came within days of execution, but came off Nevada's Death Row.

    A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling centered on remarks by then-District Attorney Mills Lane during jury selection and in his closing arguments. Lane repeatedly told jurors that the selection of life without the possibility of parole did not mean Sechrest would spend his life behind bars, that the state Pardons Board could always change the sentence, even release Sechrest to kill again.

    In its ruling, the court called those statements "outrageous" and inaccurate, saying they did not even fit Nevada law at the time.

    They also noted Sechrest's attorney did nothing to object and the judge let the statements stand. His attorney also permitted a psychiatrist originally hired by the defense to eventually testify for the prosecution calling Sechrest an incurable sociopath.

    Sechrest also appealed his conviction, arguing he had not been informed of his right to have an attorney present when questioned by police. The court ruled, however, that he had waived those rights and had willingly given a confession to Reno police.

    http://www.kolotv.com/content/news/K...461374183.html

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