Alyssa Otremba
Javier Righetti
Death penalty on table in Vegas teen slaying case
A Nevada 19-year-old may face the death penalty in the abduction, rape and slaying of a high school sophomore whose charred body was discovered over the weekend in a vacant lot not far from her northwest Las Vegas home, a prosecutor said Thursday.
A Clark County district attorney panel will consider in coming weeks whether to seek capital punishment for Javier Righetti in the slaying of 15-year-old Alyssa Otremba, Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli said outside court.
Righetti appeared in shackles for a brief initial appearance before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Conrad Hafen, who set an Oct. 14 evidence hearing on felony murder, kidnapping, sexual assault with a minor and robbery charges. The judge ordered Righetti held at the Clark County jail without bail.
Righetti's lawyer, Tim O'Brien, said review by a death penalty panel was "not unexpected" in the case.
The deputy public defender said outside court that he hadn't had a chance to fully review police accounts of Righetti's arrest. He said Righetti was in protective custody on suicide watch at the jail in downtown Las Vegas.
A police report says Righetti confessed to detectives that he followed Otremba to rob her while she walked home from a nearby middle school, and that he raped and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. He told investigators he got help from a friend to buy gasoline and matches and return to the slaying scene, where he doused Otremba's body and set it on fire, according to a police report.
The Clark County coroner said the girl was stabbed more than 40 times and burned beyond recognition.
Righetti also admitted to another sex attack and robbery, which police said was being investigated.
The slaying shocked Arbor View High School, where Otremba was a sophomore and a member of the marching band. Hundreds of people turned up for a Wednesday evening candlelight memorial in the parking lot at the school about 12 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas.
Police have characterized the slaying as a random act. They say Righetti and Otremba didn't know each other.
Otremba's mother reported her missing after Otremba text-messaged a little after 6:30 p.m. Friday to say she was walking home, but never arrived.
A search the next morning by friends and family members found her body in the vacant lot not far from U.S. Highway 95.
Police arrested Righetti on Monday, after Daniel Ortiz, 19, told detectives that he drove Righetti early Saturday to a gas station and dropped him off at the vacant lot where the body was later found. Ortiz has not been charged with a crime.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/De...se-2160940.php
Bookmarks