Ruling may free condemned man
Convict in FBI agent’s death will be retried or let go
A federal appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling in the case of a Nevada inmate who was sent to death row for killing an FBI agent in 1990.
The July 25 opinion from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that the inmate, Jose Echavarria, must be retried or set free.
Echavarria, now 57, was convicted of murder in Clark County District Court for fatally shooting FBI agent John Bailey in a Las Vegas bank.
In January 2015, U.S. District Judge Miranda Du found that Echavarria had received an unfair trial. She granted his petition for writ of habeas corpus, which would have resulted in his release if the Nevada attorney general’s office had not appealed.
Last week, a panel of three 9th Circuit judges affirmed Du’s decision. The panel found that Echavarria’s right to due process was violated because the trial judge, District Judge Jack Lehman, had been investigated for possible criminal prosecution by Bailey.
“An average judge in that position would have feared that rulings favoring Echavarria, tipping the outcome toward acquittal or a sentence less than death, could cost him his reputation, his judgeship, and possibly his liberty,” according to the 30-page opinion.
Echavarria’s lawyers argued that they learned after the trial that Bailey had investigated Lehman several years earlier over a questionable land deal when he was a member of the Colorado River Commission.
The state argued that there was no
ECHAVARRIA
warehouse and factory space, said Kevin Higgins, an executive vice president for CBRE who brokered deals between the city and some of the companies moving into North Las Vegas.
“It’s almost a ‘build it and they will come’ type of attitude,” Higgins said.
Rather than focusing on gaming and tourism, North Las Vegas is banking its financial future on attracting warehouses, factories and other commercial businesses as a way to create jobs and diversify the local economy.
Nearby, construction started this week on a 12-mile pipeline that will deliver water to part of Apex Industrial Park.
“As much as we value our hospitality and resort industry, we need to diversify to really make this a regional center with some corporate influence so that we have the ability to expand, create jobs and build houses,” said Sallie Doebler, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce.
The half-mile segment of Tropical was built in nine months for $3.6 million, paid through a federal grant and local matching funds from the countywide fuel revenue indexing tax, city officials said.
Work could start this year on a project that would extend Tropical Parkway even farther into the industrial park. The road, along with sewer infrastructure, will be installed as part of a $43.16 million project that will primarily be funded by the North Las Vegas utility fund and property assessments to landowners.
“Whenever you plan something and you build something, enterprise will respond and businesses will respond,” North Las Vegas City Manager Ryann Juden said. “That’s what happened here, and that’s what will happen at Apex.”
Bigger transportation projects are already slated for the area immediately surrounding the new Tropical Parkway exit, which abuts the terminus of the 215 Beltway.
Construction started last month on the final five-mile segment of the Beltway from North Fifth Street to the Union Pacific Railroad line just west of Range Road. The $70 million project, set to open by April 2020, calls for building new interchanges and bridges at Losee Road, Pecos Road and Lamb Boulevard.
The Nevada Department of Transportation plans to fill the gap between Range Road and I-15 with a system-to-system interchange that calls for replacing the current set of stop signs with several flyover ramps that will someday link I-15 and the Beltway.
The $90 million interchange is about 60 percent designed, with construction expected to start next year, said Tracy Larkin-thomason, an NDOT deputy director.
Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @Amarroquin_ LV on Twitter.