The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled the death sentence was justified in the case of Eugene Nunnery, who murdered three people in Las Vegas.
"Nunnery was shown to be a violent man with little regard for human life and without any remorse for his actions," said the court in a unanimous decision written by Justice Michael Cherry.
Nunnery was the leader of four men who approached five men in the parking lot of a Las Vegas apartment complex on Sept. 22 2006. The four demanded money and three of the five gave up their wallets.
Victor Ambriz-Nunez, 19, decided to run and the group started firing at him. Nunnery then grabbed Saul Nunez, the uncle of Ambriz-Nunez, and shot him in the head at close range.
Ambriz-Nunez wasn't shot. But Nunnery, before fleeing, shot Saul Nunez twice more in the head.
Nunnery admitted to planning the robbery, killing Nunez and wounding another of the victims. At the trial, Nunnery told the jury he had no remorse for the killing. Were the charges to be dropped, he said, "I walk out of here right now, and I'd do the same thing."
Nunnery admitted to two prior killings in similar circumstances. A month before the September 2006 killing, a drug dealer was murdered and a 15-year-old girl was shot. Ten days before the 2006 killing, he was involved in another robbery-murder.
The jury found 11 mitigating circumstances, including that he was born and raised in poverty with no parental guidance and suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder. But jurors found the mitigating circumstances did not outweigh the crimes.
In a separate case, the court rejected the appeal of Edward T. Wilson, sentenced to death for the murder of Reno undercover police officer James Huff in 1978. The killing came during a proposed cocaine sale. This is the latest in a series of appeals by Wilson.
There are 84 persons on death row. The last execution was in Apri1 2006.
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