Opinion ID: 1160486
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Prevention of lawful arrest

Text: Evans also challenges the use of the prevention of lawful arrest statutory aggravator, NRS 200.033(5), arguing that the evidence adduced at trial fails to show that his dominant motive [23] for killing Steven, Lisa, and Jermaine was to avoid arrest for a specific crime, or that these three victims knew him well enough to identify him. As further support for his contention that the evidence did not warrant an instruction on this aggravating circumstance, Evans cites Jimenez v. State, 105 Nev. 337, 343, 775 P.2d 694, 698 (1989), where this court granted the appellant's request for a new penalty hearing because there was no basis in fact for the jury to find that the murders had been committed to prevent lawful arrest or to escape. Evans' contentions are meritless. This court has held that the arrest need not be imminent and the victim need not actually be involved in effectuating an arrest for purposes of NRS 200.033(5). Cavanaugh v. State, 102 Nev. 478, 486, 729 P.2d 481, 486 (1986) (aggravator upheld where the defendant murdered his victim to prevent the victim from contacting law enforcement about the defendant's participation in a fraudulent scheme to purchase furniture with forged checks). In a recent case, Canape v. State, 109 Nev. 864, 859 P.2d 1023 (1993), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 176, 130 L.Ed.2d 112 (1994), the evidence produced at trial indicated that Canape robbed his victim near the victim's car, and then forced him to walk a distance from the freeway, where Canape shot him in the back. This court concluded that based on the evidence, a jury could reasonably infer that the murder was committed to avoid lawful arrest. Id. at 874-75, 859 P.2d at 1030. Unlike Jimenez, here sufficient evidence existed to justify the court giving an instruction regarding the aggravator concerned with killing to prevent a lawful arrest. Evans and his accomplice went to the apartment to kill Samantha. Shirannah Rice testified that Evans told her that Lisa, Steven, and Jermaine were shot because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Moreover, the fact that Adriana and Francois were spared is not inconsistent with the prevention of lawful arrest aggravating factor. Eighteen-month-old Francois presented no identification threat whatsoever, and it is likely that Evans believed four-year-old Adriana would not be able to tie him to the crimes. Finally, Evans' contention that the State never showed that Lisa, Jermaine, and Steven knew Evans to the extent that they could identify him, is disingenuous. We decline to give so narrow an interpretation to NRS 200.033(5) as to preclude its use whenever the perpetrator is a stranger to his or her murder victim.