CARSON CITY — A man sentenced to death for raping and stabbing to death a 69-year-old woman at a Las Vegas senior complex in 2007 is seeking to have his sentence overturned.
The court will hear oral arguments on Monday at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas in the case of Frederick J. Mendoza.
Rita Kremberg was found dead in her apartment. She had been stabbed 18 times and her throat was slit with a steak knife.
Mendoza and Kremberg lived in the senior apartment complex. The prosecution produced Mendoza’s fingerprints on the bloody knife used in the slaying and his DNA was under the fingernails of the victim.
Mendoza, now 65, pleaded innocent initially but changed his plea after a District Court jury was selected. He said the murder and sexual assault was premeditated and deliberate.
He offered 30 mitigating circumstances, including that he was a Vietnam veteran and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. Before trial, he told a detective, “Blame it on Vietnam.”
The jury, however, called for the death penalty.
In his appeal, Mendoza says he pleaded guilty because his trial attorney suggested he would get a lighter sentence. That was error on the part of his lawyer, Mendoza says.
Mendoza, who is Hispanic, also says the Clark County district attorney’s office erred by using its peremptory challenges to remove every qualified Hispanic from the jury.
He also says a 1977 rape conviction should not have been introduced into evidence at the penalty hearing.
The prosecution maintains that the peremptory challenges of the three potential Hispanic jurors were for non-race issues.
There has not been an execution in Nevada since April 2006, when Daryl Mack was put to death.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy