State Supreme Court rejects death sentence challenges

     Associated Press
      CARSON CITY -- A gang member's death sentence for shooting from a moving car and killing another motorist on U.S. 95 in northwest Las Vegas was upheld Thursday by the Nevada Supreme Court.
      The high court ruled against Kevin Lisle, who shot Kip Logan in the head in October 1994. Prosecutors said Lisle was making signs signifying his gang membership and fired after Logan laughed and made an obscene finger gesture. Joey Gonzales, a passenger in the victim's car, grabbed the wheel and managed to stop.
      Lisle, 26, also got another death sentence for the August 1994 killing of Justin Lusch, son of then-North Las Vegas Police Chief Ron Lusch. An appeal in that case is still pending before the Supreme Court.
      In the freeway killing case, justices said several of the prosecution remarks during Lisle's trial were improper but "none was patently prejudicial and none would have affected the jury verdict."
      The high court also said the record contains enough evidence for jurors to find that any mitigating circumstances were outweighed by aggravating circumstances in the case.
      The Supreme Court also upheld the death sentence of Edward Lee Jones, who confessed to a police investigator that he stabbed his live-in girlfriend after an argument over a bank card.
      The victim, Pamela Williams, 22, was stabbed 37 times in August 1991 at a mobile home park. Authorities said Jones' bloody handprint was found on a wall above the body.
      In the Jones ruling, Justice Bob Rose said Jones may not have received a perfect trial but "he did receive a fair trial, which is what the law requires."
      While there was prosecutorial misconduct in the penalty phase of the trial, Rose added evidence of Jones' guilt was overwhelming.
      Justice Charles Springer dissented, saying there's no question that Jones killed his girlfriend but there's "a strong argument that the killing was committed in the heat of passion" and wasn't premeditated.
      Evidence that Jones was guilty of intentional, first-degree murder"is anything but overwhelming," he added. "In fact, it is quite weak."