Justices reject new trial for woman convicted of killing husband

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that Margaret Rudin, convicted of murdering her millionaire Las Vegas husband in 2001, was not entitled to a new trial because she missed a deadline for making the appeal.

Justices voted 3-0 to reverse a decision made by Clark County District Judge Sally Loehrer that Rudin, 66, could have a new trial.

The court pointed out that Rudin filed for a post-conviction hearing in 2007, three years after the high court dismissed her initial appeal. That was two years past the permitted time.

Rudin had argued that her lawyers were ineffective and that her trial case file was extraordinarily large, but justices decided such causes "are not impediments" needed to show there was reason for the time delay.

Rudin has been serving a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 20 years in the Nevada Women's Correctional Center.

She was convicted of shooting her 64-year-old husband, real estate developerRon Rudin, in the head while he slept in 1994.

Margaret Rudin fled Las Vegas after she became a suspect in the murder and was caught in Massachusetts in 1999.