Justices order resentencing in 1982 murder

CARSON CITY -- A man convicted three years ago of the 1982 killing of a Carson City teenager will be sentenced again under an order issued by the Nevada Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel, in an order issued late Thursday, said Carson District Judge James Russell lacked jurisdiction to amend and lengthen the sentence of David Winfield Mitchell because Mitchell had already filed an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court.

The high court, however, rejected other legal challenges Mitchell raised over evidence and jury instructions.

Sheila Jo Harris, 18, was the reigning Miss Douglas County when she was strangled in her Carson City apartment, where Mitchell worked as a handyman.

Mitchell, now 65, was a suspect from the start, but he was released when prosecutors determined there was not enough evidence to go forward to trial.

In 1999, a DNA comparison of semen found on Harris' body and clothing against blood and saliva taken from Mitchell came back as a match.

He was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life without parole, plus up to 20 years for a deadly weapon enhancement.

The judge later amended that to two consecutive life terms without parole to conform with another state Supreme Court ruling about deadly weapon use.

In 1982, when Harris was killed, the enhancement was a mandatory doubling of the sentence for the main crime. It was later changed to a range of added consecutive time up to 20 years.

Russell, however, amended the sentence to two consecutive life terms after a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that said enhancements are applied based on when the crime was committed.

But by then, Mitchell had appealed his conviction to the high court, so Russell didn't have jurisdiction to amend the sentence, justices said in the latest ruling.