Las Vegas jury chooses death penalty for man convicted in 2009 killing

A 53-year-old man with a decades-long criminal past was sentenced to death Monday for his role in a 2009 killing.

Will Sitton made an obscene gesture at jurors as they exited the courtroom after announcing their decision.

“Nothing like being railroaded,” the defendant said before being escorted from the room.

Brian Haskell, 68, lay dehydrating for upward of three days before he died following a brutal beating in his northwest valley home, prosecutors said.

Sitton, a felon, had leveled the most severe blows — punching, kicking and stomping on Haskell as he crumpled and fell unconscious in his bedroom.

Prosecutors said Sitton’s girlfriend, Jacquie Schafer, and his brother, Robert, also participated in the attack.

A jury of eight women and four men found that aggravating factors in Will Sitton’s past — three rape convictions, an attempted murder conviction, an attempted arson, a DUI, along with his checkered behavior behind bars — outweighed mitigating factors that could have spared him from capital punishment, including pleas from his mother and his ex-wife.

In closing arguments of Will Sitton’s penalty hearing last week, Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich said he had “not a speck of remorse” for any of his crimes.

Two days earlier, the same jury convicted Will Sitton and Schafer of first-degree murder. Schafer, 39, is not facing the death penalty and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Robert Sitton, 39, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2010 and testified against his brother at trial.

Will Sitton first faced a jury in the case a year ago, but District Judge Douglas Smith declared a mistrial after jurors inadvertently received evidence they were not supposed to have reviewed.

Another prosecutor, Jacqueline Bluth, told jurors on Thursday that Haskell was “a kind and generous man who didn’t deserve to die.”

She argued that death was an appropriate punishment for Will Sitton.

“When someone will not stop, what is our recourse?” Bluth said. “When the counseling won’t work, when jail won’t work, when prison won’t work, what left are you to do? When all the options are exhausted, enough becomes enough.”

Defense lawyer Christopher Oram had asked jurors to “spare his life, please spare his life” and said Will Sitton was “not the worst of the worst” among convicted murderers.

Along with first-degree murder, Will Sitton and Schafer also were convicted last week of robbery, burglary, conspiracy and forgery.

Prosecutors said that after the Oct. 29, 2009, beating, the couple stole Haskell’s laptop and television, cashed several checks from his account, accessed his bank information and used his cellphone.

Schafer had been living with Haskell before he asked her to move out. She accused him of groping her in front of her daughter and physically attacked Haskell before the brothers beat him, prosecutors said.

Robert Sitton testified that Haskell was unconscious but still breathing when the trio left the northwest valley apartment.

A medical examiner said he could have lived for at least three more days. His body was found Nov. 14, 2009, with at least two different types of shoe prints on his back. Bones were broken in his nose, ribs and spine.

Review-Journal writer Wesley Juhl contributed to this report. Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.