NEVADA, USA — Lawyers for a Nevada inmate accused of four 1984 hammer murders in the Denver area have been given a hard deadline by the Nevada Supreme Court to file their final brief in their ongoing effort to block his extradition to Colorado.
Alex Christopher Ewing, 59, is wanted in the slayings of Patricia Louise Smith in Lakewood and Bruce, Debra and Melissa Bennett in Aurora.
His lawyers had already successfully delayed his appeal of an extradition order three times when they requested another 60-day extension on July 24.
In a ruling made public late Thursday – 64 days after the request – the court gave the attorneys “7 days from the date of this order to file and serve a reply brief.”
“No further extensions of time will be granted,” the order, signed by Chief Justice Mark Gibbons, said.
If that brief isn’t filed by the deadline, it will “be treated as a waiver of the right to file a reply brief,” Gibbons wrote.
Ewing, identified more than a year ago as a suspect in the Smith and Bennett murders based on DNA evidence, remains behind bars in a Nevada prison, serving a 110-year sentence for a savage attack on a Henderson couple.
Ewing’s lawyers are trying to get Nevada’s highest court to invalidate a judge’s order issued last Dec. 4 that paved the way for the man’s return to Colorado.
Ewing’s final brief was due Wednesday.
In the request for the 60-day extension, attorney Martin H. Wiener wrote that he had been unable to complete and file his final brief – a “daunting task.”
The Nevada Attorney General’s Office opposed the extension.
Wiener has argued that the judge erred in determining that Ewing was not entitled to a court-appointed lawyer for the extradition hearing. He also has argued that the extradition agreement between Colorado and Nevada is not valid.
Wiener first sought a delay in December and further delays in April and May.
Once the newly imposed deadline passes, the court then can decide to hear oral arguments or to simply rule based on the briefs that have been filed.
It is not clear how soon that might play out.
Jefferson County prosecutors have formally charged Ewing with four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of committing a crime of violence in the Jan. 10, 1984, murder of Smith at the condominium she shared with her daughter and grandchildren. Smith, 50, was raped and beaten to death with an auto body hammer after apparently being surprised by an intruder while eating lunch.
One of the murder counts accuses Ewing of killing Smith “after deliberation.” Each of the three other murder counts alleges that he killed her while committing another crime – robbery, burglary and sexual assault.
Under Colorado’s felony murder rule, a person can be charged with first-degree murder for killing a person in the commission of another serious crime.
The two counts of committing a crime of violence are both sentencing enhancers.
Arapahoe County prosecutors have not formally charged Ewing in the Bennett murders, which occurred Jan. 16, 1984, but have an arrest warrant obtained in 2002 that lists 13 separate charges:
- Six counts of first-degree murder – two for each of the victims. One count in each case alleges the killings were carried out with deliberation, the other alleges they were committed as part of another felony.
- One count of attempted first-degree murder for the attack on Vanessa Bennett.
- Two counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual assault on a child for the attacks on the girls.
- One count of assault.
- One count of burglary.
In addition, prosecutors in that case listed five sentencing enhancers – all alleging that Ewing committed a crime of violence.
Although the murder weapon was not found at the scene, investigators believe the couple and their daughters were all beaten with a claw hammer.
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Ewing is also suspected in two other hammer attacks in Aurora that occurred earlier that month, including one in which a woman was sexually assaulted, beaten and left for dead. However, he has not been charged in those cases – and it is not clear whether he could be.
According to court documents obtained by 9Wants to Know, Ewing was arrested in Kingman, Arizona, 11 days after the Bennett murders, accused of breaking into a home there and beating a man with a slab of granite. Because of overcrowded conditions at the jail in Kingman, Ewing was held for a time at a detention center in Utah.
On Aug. 9, 1984, Ewing was being transported from Utah back to Kingman for a court hearing when he ran off after jail deputies stopped the transport van in Henderson, Nevada, for a bathroom break. That night, Ewing broke into a home in Henderson, Nevada, and attacked a couple with an ax handle, savagely beating them. He was arrested two days later, convicted of multiple charges and has been in Nevada’s prison system ever since.
Contact 9NEWS reporter Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
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