Killer: ‘I’d do it again’

A 28-year-old man sentenced to death for murdering a man during a Las Vegas crime spree that left three dead, told a jury he felt no remorse.

"I'm not sorry for what I did," Eugene Nunnery said Thursday. "I'd do it again."

The jury deliberated for about two hours before deciding on the death sentence for Nunnery. Jurors had heard testimony from relatives, friends and experts pleading that Nunnery's life be spared.

The strain of the case wore on several in the courtroom.

One of Nunnery's three attorneys wept after Nunnery declared he would continue his life of crime if authorities released him from custody.

Another of his attorneys, Patricia Palm, periodically cried as she gave her closing arguments. She said Nunnery's lack of sympathy for the victims was his attempt to be seen as a "man in control."

"There is goodness in there somewhere," she said.

A jury last week convicted Nunnery of murder and other charges in the slaying of Saul Nunez Saustegui, who was shot execution-style during a robbery on Sept. 22, 2006, that netted $3. Nunnery is facing murder charges in two more cases.

Authorities said Nunnery and three other men went on a monthlong crime spree targeting Hispanics and others in slayings, home invasions and robberies. Nunnery is accused of killing two Hispanic men during robberies and of shooting a third man in a drug deal.

County prosecutor David Stanton said Nunnery killed or tried to kill 11 people. "The extent of damage done by the defendant is massive," he said.

The defense team spent the week showing a different side of Nunnery.

Nunnery's mother, a prostitute, died when he was young, and his father abandoned him and his two younger siblings.

For years, Nunnery and his family believed their mother was raped and killed, possibly by the Hillside Strangler, the name given to two serial killers who raped and killed women in Los Angeles in the 1970s. The family later learned she died from drinking.

Nunnery helped raise his siblings and at times stole food to have something for them to eat. His sister, Dana Nunnery, 26, recalled that they sometimes ate sandwiches made of maple syrup and bread because they had nothing else to eat.

The state took custody of the children, and Eugene Nunnery passed through more than a dozen foster homes. He had learning disabilities, and a doctor testified that Nunnery suffered from brain damage because of fetal alcohol syndrome.

"Does this excuse anything? No," said his attorney, Ivette Maningo.

An ex-girlfriend, Donisha Pierce, said she met Nunnery in 1998, when he was working two jobs. He impregnated her and, although she did not want the baby because they were so young, he was excited. She said he was attentive during her pregnancy and fetched her Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's when she craved fast food.

Pierce later had a miscarriage, and they eventually broke up.

But Stanton said other people have had similar backgrounds and do not go on to murder and steal.

Dana Nunnery is a mother of two who graduated from college and has a master's degree. She said Thursday that she was ashamed of her brother. She said she could not look at the victim's family, who attended Thursday's court hearing.

She broke down on the witness stand as she urged the jury to let her brother spend the rest of his life in a 7-foot-by-12-foot cell.

"I think that taking his life is too easy," she said through sobs. "I think he needs to sit and think about what he's done."

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.