Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Harold Chester Guyette was convicted of one count of murder after allegedly committing a double homicide.  On Mar. 12, 1966, Savin' Sam's, a mom-and-pop truck stop between the towns of Fernley and Lovelock, was robbed.  The operators, Dean Briggs and his mother, Eva Briggs, were both fatally shot.  After being arrested for an outstanding traffic citation in his home state of Indiana, Guyette, 20, was questioned about the double homicide in Nevada.  He admitted being in the area with his 17-year-old wife on a drive back from California.  His wife's stepfather had called Nevada authorities and told them the two had been in the area.  However, neither had been to the location of the murders.

On the basis of these statements, Guyette and his wife, Mary Lou, were extradited to Nevada.  The authorities made Mary Lou write letters to her husband, telling him to confess so she could get out of jail.  Guyette was denied legal counsel.  Eventually, Guyette did confess so Mary Lou could find witnesses and help.  Mary Lou did find witnesses and help, but Guyette was convicted of murdering Dean Briggs.  Witnesses placed Guyette and his wife 197 miles away at the time of the murders.  Guyette was released in 1972, officially on the technicality of being denied legal counsel.  As of 2008, Guyette is still fighting for official exoneration.  (www.haroldguyette.com) (Google)  [10/05]

Rick Tabish, a trucking contractor, and Sandy Murphy, a one-time topless dancer, were convicted in 2000 of murdering Murphy's boyfriend, Ted Binion.  Binion, 55, was formerly an executive of the Horseshoe Casino and had an estate worth $50 million.  Tabish and Murphy allegedly killed Binion by forcing him to swallow a mixture of black tar heroin and the sedative Xanax.  Murphy stood to inherit about $1.5 million from Binion's estate.  Tom Dillard, an investigator hired by the Binion family, gathered evidence against the pair and got police to file charges.  Defense argued at trial that Binion was a well-known heroin addict and had simply overdosed.

Binion reportedly became depressed in March 1998 after the Nevada Casino Gaming Control board permanently barred him from his family's casino because of his reported drug use and his association with a known mobster.  The day before Binion's death, he was prescribed a month's supply of Xanax, which is useful for combating the withdraw symptoms of heroin.  However, it seemed unlikely that he planned to use the Xanax for that purpose, for later that day, he bought 12 balloons of black tar heroin from a drug dealer.  Tabish and Murphy's convictions were overturned in 2003 and the two were acquitted on retrial in 2004.  (L.A. Times) (American Justice)  [12/06]

"Shasta" Lerlene Evonne Roever was charged with murdering her live in fiancé, Ian Wilhite, in part because Wilhite was shot with a .22 caliber bullet and she owned a .22 caliber gun, although ballistics soon ruled out her gun.  Wilhite had moved to Pahrump from Las Vegas because his life had been threatened there.  At trial the key witness and main investigator lied on direct examination and impeached their testimony on cross-examination.  Throughout the trial, this investigator fraternized with the jurors in the jurors lounge, not just on the day he testified.  His excuse was that it was the only smoking area in the court building.  Roever was convicted but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the conviction and noted, "There was no physical evidence to link the defendant to the crime."

At the second trial Roever insisted on testifying, but her public defender avoided or refused to ask important questions regarding her husband's background and associates.  The subject was not even broached.  Roever's public defender refused to subpoena anyone on the two-page list of witnesses that she gave him and even insulted her uncle, the only witness that was there for her.  This time the DA admitted there was no evidence, so he felt justified in trying her based on whatever stories or opinions his witnesses could fabricate about her.

As an example, one witness testified that Roever had stated she had killed her own mother and a baby.  Roever had shared with this witness the story of the drowning death of her mother and the story of the death of her child who was asphyxiated during delivery by his own umbilical cord.  Roever had an ex-husband whom she had thrown out years before for lying and stealing; his relatives were there to testify.  The ex-husband's mother who once told Roever she was in love with her fiancé (the murder victim) and wished he would be interested in older women, told some tales that Roever hadn't a clue about.  Even though the jurors stated their concern about the lack of evidence, Roever was convicted again.  Later the Chief Deputy DA argued in his response to the Nevada Supreme Court that ultimately, the truth behind the stories is immaterial.  In fact, he said, prosecutors assumed the stories weren't true.

Roever has repeatedly been offered plea bargains which would have allowed her to get out years ago, so maintaining her conviction is a matter of pride for prosecutors rather than a feeling that she must be locked up as a danger to society.  (JD02)  [6/05]