Convicted murderer could receive bail
John “Jack” Mazzan, who has spent more than 20 years on Nevada’s death row, could be released on bail in as few as two weeks, a Washoe County judge said last week.
Mazzan’s attorneys said that should a motion to dismiss charges be successful, he may even be set free.
Mazzan, 53, was convicted of the 1978 murder of Richard Minor Jr., the son of a Reno justice of the peace. Minor was stabbed 15 times in what police said was a drug-related killing.
On Jan. 27, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned Mazzan’s conviction, saying that evidence that may have cast doubt on the prosecution’s case was withheld at trial by the Washoe County District Attorney’s office. Mazzan has maintained his innocence since he was arrested.
District Judge Peter Breen said he will decide the bail and the motion-to-dismiss issues on April 14.
“There are circumstances to this case that are going to cause me to take a hard look at bail,” Breen said.
At the March 31 hearing, the judge also decided that Mazzan could be represented by Robert Langford, a former Clark County prosecutor, and JoNell Thomas, the Las Vegas attorney who has championed Mazzan’s cause for more than three years. The district attorney’s office had initially contested whether the two attorneys could represent Mazzan, saying that the Washoe County Public Defender’s Office should.
Breen ruled that while he couldn’t appoint Thomas and Langford with pay, as he would be obligated to use the public defender to keep court costs down, the pair could continue to represent Mazzan at their own expense.
Breen also set a July 10 trial date. The trial, should the district attorney elect to retry Mazzan, is expected to last 3 to 4 weeks.
Tom Barb, Washoe County chief deputy district attorney, said that the prosecution is proceeding with its investigation.
“I believe we’ve found everyone from the first trial,” he said. Barb also said that scientific methods that didn’t exist two decades ago, such as DNA testing, are being used to examine the evidence.
Thomas said she expects to go to trial, but she has filed a motion to dismiss the charges, based on the Nevada Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Mazzan’s conviction. She also said she isn’t sure whether evidence that other people may have committed the murder will be part of the defense strategy if the case goes to trial.
“There are lots of decisions to be made,” she said. “It’s not our obligation to show that someone else did it. It’s the state’s obligation to convict Jack based on the evidence. Again, I’m hoping that two weeks from now, it’ll all be over with.”
—D.
BRIAN BURGHART
brianb@newsreview.com
Bail set for accused killer
Jack Mazzan, a man who spent more than 20 years on Nevada’s death row before getting his murder conviction overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court in January, could be released on bail in a few days.
Mazzan was convicted of the murder of Richard Minor Jr. in 1979. However, that conviction was overturned in January, when the state’s highest court determined prosecutors wrongfully withheld evidence that might have weakened their case in his trial.
Last week, Washoe District Court Judge Peter Breen set bail for Mazzan at $100,000.
According to John Helzer, assistant Washoe County district attorney, Mazzan’s bail was $200,000 at his 1979 trial, and, because of the nature of the murder and inflation, he asked the judge to require $500,000.
Breen said that the passage of time, Mazzan’s health and the time that Mazzan has already spent in prison make him less of a flight risk. Breen also said that while bail is unusual in a murder trial, the controversy surrounding the original trial makes this a special case.
“[Reading the Supreme Court’s opinion], you get an overall sense that the Supreme Court really doesn’t believe the evidence in this case is overwhelming,” he said.
Mazzan’s bail will be a property bond posted by longtime friend Lavonia Young, according to JoNell Thomas, one of Mazzan’s attorneys. Mazzan, once released, will live at a home owned by Young.
Thomas also said that while Breen has scheduled time April 28 to consider whether to accept the property as bail, she expects that once the DA’s office is provided with a copy of the title and an appraisal, Mazzan will be released.
“I’m hoping that it’ll just be a few days,” she said.
At the April 14 hearing, lawyers argued a defense motion to dismiss the charges completely. Breen said he’ll rule on that motion, and a variety of others, April 28.
If the judge decides against the dismissal, the trial is scheduled for July 10 and is expected to last several weeks.
—D.
BRIAN BURGHART
brianb@newsreview.com