Justices uphold doctor’s conviction in overdose death

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court upheld the second-degree murder conviction of Dr. Harriston Bass over the overdose death of one of his patients.

Justices rejected the Las Vegas doctor's arguments that jurors who convicted him were given improper instructions and that the murder law used against him was unconstitutionally vague.

The court also rejected his request for a new trial because of judicial misconduct.

Bass, 55, was sentenced to 10 years to life on the second-degree murder conviction

Bass also was convicted of 49 counts of selling a controlled substance and six counts of possession of a controlled substance, with the intent to sell. Sentences for those counts ranged from two to 10 years, with some running concurrently. The total sentence is 25 years to life.

A three-justice Supreme Court panel ruled 3-0 that instructions given to the jury followed state law and the second-degree murder law has a "well-settled meaning." That being: "It is unlawful to kill a human being by illegally selling him a controlled substance."

The decision was dated Tuesday and was made by justices Michael Cherry, Mark Gibbons and Nancy Saitta.

A Clark County jury convicted Bass in March 2008 in the death of Gina Micali, to whom he provided hundreds of pain pills and anti-anxiety medications from his mobile doctor's office.

In the decision, justices said Bass sold, and did not prescribe through a pharmacy, the medications for Micali.

He was not certified as a pharmacist and was not authorized to sell or dispense controlled substances.

According to the decision, Micali, 38, died after taking the hydrocodone that she bought from Bass on Oct. 5, 2005.

In the decision, the Supreme Court said District Judge Jackie Glass had "joked with the jurors that they should not feed the bailiff" and allegedly "made faces" during the reading of the charges against Bass.

But having reviewed Glass's conduct, justices said it was "not so egregious as to influence the jury's verdict."

Bass was a licensed physician who essentially ran his doctor's office from a motor vehicle. He made house and hotel room calls and routinely sold painkillers and other types of medication.

At his trial, Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen said Bass sold Micali about 900 hydrocodone pills. The toxicology report found only trace amounts of hydrocodone.

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto hailed the decision and the work of her staff.

"Dr. Bass put his own interests ahead of the well-being of his patients and this led to the death of one of his patients," she said. "This unfortunate case was based on the illegal sale of prescription drugs to a patient who subsequently overdosed on those drugs."

Hydrocodone, also known by the brand name Vicodin, is a pain reliever and cough suppressant. It is one of the drugs that radio commentator Rush Limbaugh said he was addicted to in 2006 before checking into a treatment center.

Review-Journal reporter Doug McMurdo contributed
to this report. Contact Review-Journal Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or
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