Paulette v. State, 8241
| Decision Date | 28 January 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 8241,8241 |
| Parties | Lloyd Leonard PAULETTE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
The partially mutilated bodies of Eugene and Mary Carone were found in a motel room in Las Vegas. Lloyd Leonard Paulette, one of three individuals charged with the homicides, was--by jury verdict--convicted of two (2) counts of first degree murder.
In this appeal Paulette, who claims to be a citizen of another country, does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict; however, he contends that we must reverse because: (1) the Nevada district court lacked jurisdiction to try a non-resident alien who commits a crime while traveling through the state and, (2) the district court refused to exclude certain damaging admissions he had made. We reject both contentions.
1. Insofar as Paulette's first contention is concerned, NRS 171.010 provides: (Emphasis added).
Paulette contends the portion of the statute which says '. . . whether an inhabitant of this state, or any other state, or of a territory or district of the United States, . . .' should be strictly construed to provide that only citizens of the United States, the territories and District of Columbia can be subject to criminal prosecution, and to exclude prosecution of foreign nationals who commit a crime while traveling through Nevada. In our view such a construction would be absurd; and, we decline to presume that the legislature intended such aburdity. Cf. Western Pac. R.R. v. State, 69 Nev. 66, 241 P.2d 846 (1952). While the aforementioned phrase does not specifically refer to inhabitants of foreign countries, we believe it to be elucidative and descriptive of the term 'every person' rather than a legislative expression to exclude those classes of persons not specifically mentioned. Cf. Paulette v. Sheriff, 90...
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