Supreme Court to hear arguments in wild horse shooting case

RENO, Nev. - A panel of Nevada Supreme Court justices will convene in a rare Virginia City session to hear arguments about whether to reinstate some charges against three men accused of gunning down wild horses.

The panel will hear arguments later this month on the appeal by Storey County District Attorney Janet Hess of a lower judge's ruling throwing out most the charges against former Marine Lance Cpls. Scott Brendle and Darien Brock, and their friend from high school, Anthony Merlino.

The three, all in their early 20s, were arrested in January 1999 after the dead animals were discovered in the hills east of Reno shortly after Christmas 1998.

They originally were charged with killing more than two dozen wild horses.

A justice of the peace dismissed the more serious charges against them after a preliminary hearing in September 1999.

Then in March, First District Court Judge Michael Griffin further reduced the prosecution's case, saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed on all but one gross misdemeanor involving a single horse.

The trial was postponed the next month when Griffin granted a rare change of venue, saying dramatic media coverage of the slaughter had stacked tiny Storey County against the defendants.

Trial is set to begin Nov. 1 in Carson City.

Arguments before the Supreme Court panel are scheduled for 11 a.m., Oct. 23 at the historic Virginia City Courthouse.

Though the court often conducts hearings in Las Vegas, it otherwise rarely convenes outside its stately dwellings in Carson City.

But Andy Horstmanshoff, a staff lawyer in the clerk's office, said Wednesday that the court occasionally hears cases in other places for educational purposes. In this instance students from Virginia City High School will attend, he said.

The crime of maiming or killing another person's animal carries a maximum penalty of up to one year in a county jail and a $2,000 fine. In response to the massacre, the 1999 Nevada Legislature elevated the severity of the crime to a felony.

The three men admitted they shot at horses and killed one in the area on the night of Dec. 27, 1998, the first day authorities began discovering the string of carcasses.

Brendle also confessed to spraying one already-dead horse with a fire extinguisher. But all three denied any involvement in a mass killing.

Defense lawyers Scott Freeman, Marc Picker and John Ohlson, representing Merlino, Brock and Brendle, respectively, have maintained that someone else was responsible for the slaughter and that their clients were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The shootings outraged animal activists across the nation and resulted in Brendle and Brock being dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps.