Stroup said the cases and conviction have been a nightmare and he agreed to the plea to end the matter. Stroup's father, Bobby Stroup, was convicted of the killings in 2001.ĭeputy District Attorney Terry McCarthy said the kidnap and murder charges would not be refiled. Instead of seeking a new trial, Stroup pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of coercion with physical force and was sentenced to time served. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found near the Mount Rose Ski Area in 1991. Stroup, 35, was acquitted of murder but convicted of kidnapping Daniel Rasmussen and Jack Strawbridge from a convenience store on Long Street. Polaha, now a fellow Washoe District Court judge, was defeated by Hardesty in the 1998 election but was appointed to the bench by the governor in 1999, elected in 2000 and re-elected last year.
Stroupe kidnapped man professional#
"The court finds that in these respects, counsels' representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms," Hardesty said in his order dismissing the kidnapping charges and granting a new trial. The time limit on kidnapping is three years.
Stroupe kidnapped man trial#
Washoe District Judge James Hardesty on Thursday said Stroup's trial lawyers, Jerry Polaha and Marc Picker, failed to defend him properly because they didn't realize that the statute of limitations on the kidnapping charge had expired by the time Stroup was charged in 1995. Roger Stroup's release from prison is imminent, his attorneys said. Stroup's son, Roger Stroup, was convicted in 1996 of kidnapping the men, but was acquitted of murder.Ī ruling will be issued later on Bobby Stroup's bid for either a new trial or to reduce his four terms to two life sentences.RENO - A judge has thrown out the conviction of a man sentenced to four life prison terms for the 1991 kidnapping of two Carson City men killed along the Mount Rose Highway. Their bullet-riddled bodies were later found along the Mount Rose Highway.ĭuring Stroup's trial, prosecutors argued that even if he didn't kill the two men himself, he supplied the guns and participated in the conspiracy that led to their deaths, making him guilty of murder. Stroup was convicted of two counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree murder with a deadly weapon for the deaths of Rasmussen and Strawbridge, who were kidnapped from a Carson City convenience store. Regarding the defense claim of excessive trial delays, McCarthy noted Stroup faced criminal charges in California before his Nevada trial could proceed. "Juries decide who is reliable and who is credible," McCarthy said, echoing comments by Justice Mark Gibbons, one of three justices who heard the case Monday. The attorney said there's potential for lying by accused criminals whose boasting is really "jockeying for status" among other inmates.Ĭornell said he wasn't arguing to bar such testimony - but that there should be more done to determine the reliability of testimony that could be "potential dynamite" for a defendant.ĭeputy Washoe County District Attorney Terry McCarthy said he viewed Cornell's suggestion to restrict such testimony "a little bit shocking." McCarthy said Stroup could have prevented the testimony by simply not bragging. Stroup was convicted in April 2001.Ĭornell said the state Supreme Court should revise jury instructions on trial testimony given by witnesses who share jail cells with people who brag about their crimes. The Nevada Supreme Court was urged Monday to grant a new trial to a man who was sentenced to multiple life terms for the drug-related killings of two men on Mount Rose more than 11 years ago.Ī lawyer for Bobby Stroup, a former Carson City resident sentenced to four no-parole life terms, argued that Stroup got an unfair trial because of testimony against him from jailhouse informants.Īttorney Richard Cornell also said Stroup's trial, for the October 1991 murders of Daniel Rasmussen and Jack Strawbridge, was delayed too long.
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