DNA evidence could set woman jailed for 30 years free

Scott Sonner/AP

September 10, 2014

A woman who has been in prison for more than 30 years for a Nevada killing has been granted a new trial thanks to recently discovered DNA evidence.

Her lawyer said the evidence ties an Oregon prison inmate to the 1976 slaying of a Reno student and two killings in California.

The ruling by Washoe District Judge Patrick Flanagan came after public defender Maizie Pusich said that DNA on a cigarette butt in a Reno garage where the body of 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell was found matches that of the inmate currently serving time for attempted murder.

Pusich represents 64-year-old Cathy Woods, who was convicted of killing Mitchell on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Woods was granted a new trial in the case after the DNA evidence was presented. Flanagan also ordered her release on her own recognisance and set the new trial for July 13, 2015.

"We are delighted that Cathy gets to go home and we get to try to prove to the rest of the world she was innocent all along,'" Pusich said after the hearing.

"It's a horribly sad situation but thank goodness today we are moving the right direction."

Pusich said in court papers filed this week before the hearing that the DNA found on the cigarette butt matches that of Oregon inmate Rodney L Halbower, aged 66.

The FBI said in a statement issued in San Francisco that Halbower had been named as a person of interest in the killings of five young women in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 known as the "Gypsy Hill Murders."

The agency said the DNA link to those cases had been established by crime labs in San Mateo County, California, and Washoe County, Nevada.

Halbower is not eligible for parole until 2026. It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Oregon Department of Corrections spokeswoman Betty Bernt said she couldn't find the name of a lawyer for Halbower in any prison documents.

Halbower was first sentenced to prison in Nevada for sexually assaulting a female blackjack dealer in downtown Reno in November 1975, an attack that occurred roughly two months before Mitchell was killed a few blocks away, Pusich said.

He was later sentenced to two life terms for rape and other charges. He escaped from prison twice but was recaptured before being paroled in 2013 to begin serving sentences in Oregon.

FBI spokesman Peter Hill disclosed in March that the DNA on the cigarette butt in Reno matched that of semen gathered from at least one crime scene in San Mateo, California, and that FBI agents had reopened the series of cold cases.

Pusich said the DNA found at two of those California rape-murder scenes also belonged to Halbower.

"No DNA found at the Michelle Mitchell crime scene belongs to Cathy Woods," the lawyer said.

Woods' brother, Al Carter, 58, told reporters with tears in his eyes after the hearing that he had heard there were other suspects in the 1976 killing.

"I'm so happy," he said about the possibility of closure for his sister and the family of Mitchell.

While under psychiatric care at Louisiana State University Medical Center, Woods acknowledged killing Mitchell but later recanted.

She was convicted of the murder in 1980, won an appeal before the Nevada Supreme Court but was convicted again in 1985.

Pusich said Woods doesn't remember acknowledging the killing after she was committed to the mental hospital by her mother for reasons unrelated to any crime.

"I'm told it was a product of wanting to get a private room," Pusich said. "She was being told she wasn't sufficiently dangerous to qualify, and within a short period she was claiming she had killed a woman in Reno."

Carter said he had tried to maintain hope his sister would be freed eventually but was starting to fear she would end up dying in prison.

"I've heard her talk about appeals forever, but she has talked about it for so long, I thought maybe that was her mental condition," he said. "It turns out, wow, she's right."

 

Woman found guilty of murdering teen nursing student in 1976 gets a new trial after DNA links convicted rapist to the killing... and deaths of FIVE other girls

• Cathy Woods, 64, was convicted of killing University of Nevada student Michele Mitchell in 1976

• However, new DNA evidence connects an Oregon inmate named Rodney L Halbower to the murder

• Woods' attorney believes she confessed to the murder in order to get a better room at the mental hospital where she was being treated at the time

• Now 64, Woods is set to be released from prison this week to await a retrial

By Ashley Collman for MailOnline and Associated Press

September 9, 2014

A woman who has been imprisoned for more than 30 years for the 1976 murder of a 19-year-old nursing student is set to be released this week, now that another man has been connected to the crime with DNA evidence.

Cathy Woods, 64, was being treated at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in 1976 when she confessed to killing Michele Mitchell.

Mitchell was found dead near the University of Nevada's Reno campus on February 24, 1976 - her throat slashed shortly after her car broke down.

The psychiatric patient's public defender says she only admitted to the killing so that staff would think she was dangerous, and let her have her own room at the mental hospital.

'I'm told it was a product of wanting to get a private room,' her public defender Maizie Pusich said. 'She was being told she wasn't sufficiently dangerous to qualify, and within a short period she was claiming she had killed a woman in Reno.'

'I suspect the reason why she thought of this case is because this was the case everybody around her was talking about. This is something she would have heard about many, many times,' Pusich added to SFGate.

Recently obtained DNA evidence, however, links known Reno-area killer Rodney L Halbower to the crime.

A judge accepted Woods' petition for a re-trial, and will be released this week to her family in Bakersfield to await her new court date, July 13, 2015.

‘We are delighted that Cathy gets to go home and we get to try to prove to the rest of the world she was innocent all along,’ Pusich said after the hearing. ‘It's a horribly sad situation but thank goodness today we are moving the right direction.’

Halbower, 66, only recently submitted a DNA sample after being transferred in 2013 to a prison in Oregon. That sample matches a cigarette butt that was found underneath Mitchell's body.

'No DNA found at the Michelle Mitchell crime scene belongs to Cathy Woods,' her lawyer said.

The FBI said in a statement issued in San Francisco later Monday that Halbower had been named as a person of interest in the killings of five young women in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 known as the 'Gypsy Hill Murders.'

Veronica Cascio, 18, was snatched off the street while walking to a bus stop at Bradford Way and Fairway Drive; her body was later found on the Sharp's Park Golf Course, Mercury News reported.

Just weeks later, Tanya Blackwell, 14, went missing while walking from her home, and her badly decomposed remains were discovered only six months later off Gypsy Hill Road.

Paula Baxter, 17, was abducted February 4, 1976, as she left a school play rehearsal. The high school student was stabbed to death and had her head bashed in.

Carol Lee Booth, a 26-year-old housewife, was discovered in a shallow grave near Colma Creek in March, and the following month, saleswoman Denise Lampe was raped, murdered and dumped outside a busy shopping mall.

Halbower was first sentenced to prison in Nevada for sexually assaulting a female blackjack dealer in downtown Reno in November 1975, an attack that occurred roughly two months before Mitchell was killed a few blocks away, Woods' Pusich said.

He was later sentenced to two life terms for rape and other charges.

He escaped from prison twice but was recaptured before being paroled in 2013 to begin serving sentences in Oregon.

FBI spokesman Peter Hill disclosed in March that the DNA on the cigarette butt in Reno matched that of semen gathered from at least one crime scene in San Mateo, California, and that FBI agents had reopened the series of cold cases.

Pusich said Monday the DNA found at two of those California rape-murder scenes also belonged to Halbower.

Woods' brother, Al Carter, 58, told reporters with tears in his eyes after the hearing that he had heard there were other suspects in the 1976 killing.

‘I'm so happy,’ he said about the possibility of closure for his sister and the family of Mitchell.

Woods was convicted of the murder in 1980, won an appeal before the Nevada Supreme Court but was convicted again in 1985.

Carter said he had tried to maintain hope his sister would be freed eventually but was starting to fear she would end up dying in prison.

‘I've heard her talk about appeals forever, but she has talked about it for so long, I thought maybe that was her mental condition,’ he said. ‘It turns out, wow, she's right.’

 

FBI links inmate to unsolved Gypsy Hill killings on Peninsula

By Vivian Ho - SFGate.com

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

A person of interest in a string of unsolved killings in San Mateo County was identified by the FBI on Monday, nearly 40 years after the first victim was found near Gypsy Hill Road in Pacifica.

Rodney Halbower, a 66-year-old inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary, was linked to the killings of five young women on the Peninsula in 1976 after investigators connected DNA evidence in those cases to a cigarette butt left under the body of a sixth murder victim in Reno, authorities said.

That victim was Reno resident Michelle Mitchell, 19, who had her throat slit shortly after her car broke down near the University of Nevada on Feb. 24, 1976.

Another woman, Cathy Woods, was convicted of her murder after giving what her attorney said was a false confession. After more than three decades in custody, Woods requested a review of the evidence in the case earlier this year. It turned up the DNA sample on the cigarette butt that linked Mitchell's murder to two of the cases in San Mateo County.

In turn, that DNA was linked to Halbower, who had only recently given a DNA sample when he was transferred from state prison in Nevada to state prison in Oregon, said Woods' attorney, Chief Deputy Public Defender Maizie Pusich.

"The people that are in custody serving long sentences, there's a backlog in taking their DNA," she said. "Thank goodness he transferred jurisdictions and that put his DNA in the database."

Halbower had been in custody in Nevada after he was convicted of a 1976 rape just a few blocks from where Mitchell was found in Reno, Pusich said. In 1986, he escaped the maximum-security prison where he was being held and fled to Oregon, where he committed a slew of other crimes.

He was admitted to Oregon State Penitentiary in November 2013 after he was paroled in Nevada to serve his sentence for attempted murder, assault and robbery, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Investigators said they believe Halbower's DNA also matches the DNA found in some of the unsolved San Mateo County slayings that haunted the Peninsula for decades.

They began on Jan. 8, 1976, when the body of 18-year-old Ronnie Cascio was discovered at the Sharp Park Golf Course in her hometown of Pacifica. She had been stabbed 30 times and sexually assaulted.

A few weeks later, 14-year-old Tanya Blackwell was reported missing after leaving her home in Pacifica. Her body was discovered on Gypsy Hill Road in the city a few months later.

The body of 17-year-old Paula Baxter was found a few weeks after that in her hometown of Millbrae. The next month, 19-year-old Denise Lampe of Broadmoor was slain in her car in the lot of the Serramonte mall in Daly City.

Carol Lee Booth, 26, who was reported missing that March, was found dead in South San Francisco a month later. She, like Cascio and Baxter, had been sexually assaulted.

The FBI did not say what is going to happen to Halbower now that he has been named a person of interest. But Pusich's client Woods will be released and out of custody for the first time since Feb. 24, 1979. Pusich's motion for a new trial was granted, and Woods is expected to be released to her family in Bakersfield by the end of this week.

Woods, now 64, was a psychiatric patient at the Louisiana State University Medical Center when she told hospital staff that she had killed a girl named Michelle in Reno. Woods was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Pusich said she believes she had just been trying to get her own room at the hospital.

"She was very sick," Pusich said. "There was some discussion about whether or not she qualified to be in a single room, and after they told her she didn't qualify for a single room, she told them that. I suspect the reason why she thought of this case is because this was the case everybody around her was talking about. This is something she would have heard about many, many times."

Woods' conviction was reversed by the Nevada Supreme Court when it was discovered that a witness in the case gave differing testimonies of the events in two separate cases. She was tried and convicted again in 1995, Pusich said, and had remained in custody the entire time.

Woods told Pusich that she had never met Halbower. Pusich said her client was overwhelmed but happy to finally be reunited with her brother and mother.

"It's bittersweet," Pusich said. "I wish this had happened on her behalf years and years ago, but it couldn't have. We didn't have the ability or the authority to do the testing, and we wouldn't have had the results to compare. Even though it's been forever, it's the right time."

 

DNA is key in contested UNR murder conviction

By Scott Sonner, Associated Press

August 21, 2014

Modern DNA technology is the focus of a hearing Thursday in a decades-old murder case in which a 64-year-old woman is trying to overturn her conviction after spending more than 30 years in a Nevada prison.

Public defenders for Cathy Woods were scheduled to make their case for granting a new trial during the hearing in Washoe County District Court.

Woods was convicted twice of killing Michelle Mitchell, a 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Nevada, Reno.

But authorities say DNA evidence on a cigarette butt that was recently re-examined links someone other than Woods to the killing scene in a garage on the edge of campus where Mitchell was tied up and had her throat slashed in 1976.

The FBI announced in March that the DNA matches that of semen gathered as part of the unsolved killings of five young women in the 1970s in California in what became known as the "Gypsy Hill Murders."

Mitchell's long brown hair parted in the middle resembled that of victims in the "Gypsy Hill" case, the FBI said. And like Mitchell, several of those victims were attacked after their car broke down.

Deputy Reno Police Chief Mac Venzon previously confirmed that the new DNA evidence does not connect Woods to the killing of Mitchell. However, he said it doesn't exclude her either because authorities believe she may have had an accomplice.

Lawyers on both sides of the Woods case started making their arguments at a hearing in May, when a judge granted prosecutors' request for a three-month continuance so they could better review evidence.

"If we have the wrong person in prison, I want to fix it and I want to fix it quickly. But we also have to do it right," assistant district attorney Terry McCarthy said at the time.

Public defender Maizie Pusich told the judge that new DNA technology enabled investigators to tie the cigarette butt to two other murder cases.

"The DNA evidence has been processed that was not available to any of the parties in 1976 or even at the time of the later trial in 1985," Pusich said.

While under psychiatric care at Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport, Woods acknowledged killing Mitchell, authorities said.

Court transcripts from her previous trials show there was heated debate about whether or not her statements should have been allowed as evidence because of her medical condition.

Pusich said defense attorneys had difficulty persuading the jury not to believe the statements.

"Now there is scientific evidence that shows that the jury should not have accepted everything that Cathy Woods said from the hospital in Shreveport at face value," Pusich said.

 

New trial possible for convicted killer in 1976 slaying

By Emerson Marcus - RGJ.com

March 11, 2014

The woman convicted of murdering a University of Nevada, Reno nursing student in 1976 has requested a new trial based on DNA evidence examined by the Washoe County forensic examiners.

An attorney for Cathy Woods, 76, filed the motion in February and a status hearing is set for Wednesday in Washoe County District Judge Patrick Flanagan's court.

Woods was convicted twice — 1980 and 1985 — in the murder of 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell and is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 2010, Woods filed a post-conviction petition for DNA evidence to be examined. Officials ultimately found no evidence from the crime matched Woods' DNA, according to forensic report issued by the Washoe County Sheriff's Office.

However, a cigarette found in the garage where Mitchell was left to die with her throat slashed matched the DNA profile of sperm gathered in a 1976 unsolved homicide in San Mateo, Calif., the forensic report said.

That unsolved San Mateo murder is one of five known as the Gypsy Hill slayings.

Maizie Pusich, of the Washoe County public defender's office, filed the motion for the new trial on Feb. 10.

She could not be reached for an interview Monday, but said in a voice message that more information is expected to be released at Wednesday's status hearing.

A detective with the Reno Police Department remains in the Bay Area this week to investigate the matter with local law enforcement and FBI there.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the Washoe County District Attorney's office have requested more time to review evidence in the case.

If granted a new trial, it would be Woods' third crack at acquittal.

John Helzer, Chief Deputy District Attorney, said depending on Flanagan's decision, both the prosecution and defense could appeal.

"Both sides will be in wait-and-see mode on what the judge rules and what the basis is," Helzer said.

Tony Lima

One man, who Woods' defense attorneys argued in both trials could have been the actual killer in the 1976 slaying of Mitchell, is no longer considered a suspect, Reno police Deputy Chief Mac Venzon said.

In 1985, the Nevada Supreme Court granted Woods a second trial based on the Washoe District Court's 1980 decision to exclude testimony from Kathy Murnighan.

Murnighan was the Washoe Jail cellmate of Raye Wood, an exotic dancer in Reno. She was convicted in 1977 of murdering Peggy Davis, of Reno.

That murder occurred just five days before Mitchell was murdered in February 1976. Both were stabbings.

Mitchell's murder gained front page headlines and rocked the university's campus.

Davis' murder was less publicized.

Wood said Lima, her boyfriend, killed a woman to make detectives believe there was a serial killer on the loose, and throw them off her tracks, Murnighan claimed Wood told her in jail.

But even with Murnighan's testimony and a new trial, Woods was found guilty again in 1985 for killing Mitchell.

Lima denied ever being involved with Mitchell's death during testimony, but served two years in Nevada State Prison as an accessory in Davis' murder.

He died in 1991.

Police said Lima was one of the first people investigated after the case was recently re-opened. But based on DNA he is not believed to be connected to evidence found in the garage or the Gypsy Hill murders, Venzon said.

Woods' confession

While in a Louisiana mental institution, Woods in 1979 confessed to killing a Reno woman named Michelle.

Among other confessions, Woods said she worked for the FBI and that her mother, who committed her, was trying to poison her, court records said.

"She was claiming she was going to kill more girls like she did in Reno," said Cal Dunlap, the district attorney who prosecuted Woods' first trial.

Woods told hospital employees that on Feb. 24, 1976 she reacted to a "satanic voice" before killing Mitchell, according to court records.

When Reno detectives arrived that week, she changed her story and said she killed Mitchell after the sophomore student declined homosexual advances, records say.

But the defense argued size nine male footprints were found near the garage on Ninth Street where Mitchell was killed. Woods wore size seven woman's shoes, the defense said.

Mitchell was on her way to a bowling alley on Valley Road when her Volkswagen broke down and she went to the UNR Agriculture Building to call her mother.

Some witnesses said they saw Mitchell with Woods. Others said they saw her with a man who acted like a boyfriend.

Police found her hours later tied up and dead in a house garage on East Ninth Street.

Dunlap said, just as he believed in 1980, that he still believes another person worked the murder with Woods.

 

Supreme Court of Nevada

WOODS v. STATE

696 P.2d 464 (1985)

Cathy WOODS, Appellant,
v.
The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.

No. 13318.

March 5, 1985.
Rehearing Denied May 8, 1985.

David Parraguirre, Washoe County Public Defender, Jane G. McKenna, Michael B. McDonald, Deputy Public Defenders, Reno, for appellant.

D. Brian McKay, Atty. Gen., Carson City, Mills B. Lane, Dist. Atty., Edward B. Horn, Deputy Dist. Atty., Reno, for respondent.

OPINION

GUNDERSON, Justice:

Appellant Cathy Woods was convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of Michelle Mitchell and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Because we consider that certain evidentiary rulings of the district court precluded appellant from receiving a fair trial, we reverse her conviction.

The record reflects the following facts. On the evening of February 24, 1976, Michelle Mitchell's car broke down near the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, and she telephoned her mother to ask for a ride home. Mitchell's mother left immediately but could not find her daughter. Mitchell's dead body was discovered a few hours later in the garage of a nearby house. Her hands were bound with twine and her throat had been slashed.

For nearly three years no charges were brought in the Mitchell killing. In March of 1979, the Reno Police Department received the information that a mental patient at the Louisiana State University Medical Center at Shreveport, Louisiana, had told hospital staff that some years ago in Reno she had killed a girl named Michelle. The patient was appellant Cathy Woods, who had been committed to the hospital in February of 1979. Appellant told the hospital staff and subsequently Lieutenant Dennison of the Reno Police Department that she had offered to help the girl fix her car, had taken her to a garage on the pretext of getting some tools, had made a sexual proposal to her, and when rebuffed, had cut her throat. Appellant was subsequently brought to Reno and tried.

Appellant entered a plea of not guilty. The defense theory was that appellant's confession was the product of her mental illness: Mitchell had actually been killed by Tony Lima, the boyfriend of Raye Wood, to cover up the contract murder of Peggy Davis by Raye Wood and Marjorie Carter. The two women had beaten Davis to death with a hammer only a few days before Mitchell was killed.1 Raye Wood's former jailmate, Kathy Murnighan, was ready to testify that Raye Wood had told her that she and Lima had discussed killing a woman to cover up the Davis killing by making it appear as though both murders were the work of a homicidal maniac. One night Lima told Raye Wood that he had found a girl whose car had broken down and had slashed her throat. Raye Wood and Lima together disposed of the murder weapon.

Lima was called during the offer of proof and denied having killed Mitchell. Raye Wood invoked her fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify unless she was granted immunity. The State declined to seek immunity on her behalf, and Raye Wood was ruled to be unavailable. Defense counsel then sought to introduce Murnighan's testimony under NRS 51.345. The district court refused to allow Murnighan to testify because it did not consider her testimony sufficiently trustworthy to be admissible under the statute.

Initially, we note that Murnighan's proffered testimony included not only Raye Wood's statements about her own activities but also Raye Wood's narration of Lima's statements to her. Lima's statements to Raye Wood present no problem under the hearsay rule. Lima testified at the offer of proof and denied having killed Mitchell. Had he been permitted to testify at trial, his statements to Raye Wood would have been admissible as prior inconsistent statements. NRS 51.035(2)(a). However, Murnighan could not testify about any of Raye Wood's statements to her — including Raye Wood's narration of Lima's statements — unless the district court admitted her testimony under NRS 51.345. We turn then to consider the admissibility of Murnighan's testimony under the statute.

NRS 51.345 provides in pertinent part:

1. A statement which at the time of its making: ..... (b) So far tended to subject [the declarant] to civil or criminal liability; ..... that a reasonable man in his position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true is not inadmissible under the hearsay rule if the declarant is unavailable as a witness. A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused in a criminal case is not admissible unless corroborating circumstances clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement.

Under the statute, a statement against penal interest is admissible if the declarant is unavailable at the time of the trial and if the statement was against the declarant's penal interest at the time when made. If the statement is offered to exculpate an accused, however, an additional requirement exists: corroborating circumstances must clearly indicate that the statement is trustworthy.

An examination of the record discloses that Murnighan's proffered testimony complied with all three requirements. Raye Wood, the declarant, invoked her fifth amendment privilege and thus became unavailable within the meaning of the Evidence Code. NRS 51.055(1)(a). Raye Wood's statements were clearly against her penal interest at the time when made. By admitting that she had helped dispose of the evidence of the crime, Raye Wood exposed herself to criminal liability as an accessory after the fact. NRS 195.030(1). Since Raye Wood and Lima had discussed killing a randomly chosen woman to cover up the Davis murder, Raye Wood might also have exposed herself to criminal liability for conspiracy to commit murder. NRS 199.480(1).

It was the requirement of trustworthiness, however, which preoccupied the court below. In order for a statement to be trustworthy evidence under the statute, the statement must actually have been made by the declarant and must afford a basis for believing the truth of the matter asserted. The legislative history of Rule 804(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, on which NRS 51.345 is based, indicates that its draftsmen were particularly concerned with the possibility of fabrication. United States v. Bagley, 537 F.2d 162, 167 (5th Cir.1976) and the legislative history cited therein. "[O]ne senses in the decisions a distrust of evidence of confessions by third persons offered to exculpate the accused arising from suspicions of fabrication either of the fact of the making of the confession or in its contents." Notes of Advisory Committee on Proposed Rules, Fed.Rules Evid.Rule 804(b)(3), 28 U.S.C.A. at 697.

In determining whether the declarant in fact made the proffered statement, the trial court may consider the credibility of the witness. United States v. Bagley, supra; Laumer v. United States, 409 A.2d 190 (D.C. 1979); contra United States v. Atkins, 558 F.2d 133 (3rd Cir.1977) (inquiry into trustworthiness of the declarant, not of the witness). It has been noted that a test for admissibility of hearsay statements based on the credibility of the testifying witness is unrelated to the purpose of the general rule against hearsay. United States v. Satterfield, 572 F.2d 687, 691-692 (9th Cir.1978). This observation notwithstanding, the Satterfield court acknowledged that the legislative history of the rule indicates that an inquiry into whether the statements against penal interest were actually made is proper when the statements are offered to exculpate an accused and that the credibility of the witness is one of the factors the court should consider. Id.

The district court's primary reason for excluding Murnighan's testimony was that it did not consider her to be a credible witness. The trial judge made this determination in spite of the fact that he had presided over Raye Wood's trial at which Murnighan, as witness for the prosecution, testified about her conversations with Raye Wood. Raye Wood's statements about the Davis slaying and her statements about the Mitchell slaying were interwoven in the same series of conversations in the same surroundings during the same period of time. It is absurd to contend that Murnighan was credible when she related Raye Wood's statements about the Davis slaying but not credible when she related Raye Wood's statements about the Mitchell slaying. Cf. United States v. Benveniste, 564 F.2d 335 (9th Cir.1977) (when evidence of accusatory statements admitted, error to exclude at same trial evidence of exculpatory statements made by same declarant regarding same subject matter).

We recognize that Murnighan's testimony at Raye Wood's trial was admitted under a different hearsay exception and that the Evidence Code did not require, or indeed authorize, the district court to inquire into Murnighan's credibility prior to letting her testify. However, Murnighan either was or was not a credible witness as to her conversations with Raye Wood. The failings which were mentioned by the district court — her emotional instability, her criminal record — were equally present when she testified at Raye Wood's trial. If they were not fatal to her credibility at that trial, they should not have precluded her from telling her story to the jury at appellant's trial. The State demonstrated its belief that Murnighan was a credible witness when it put her on the stand in Raye Wood's trial. Indeed, the State demonstrated that belief when it employed Murnighan as an informant and facilitated her access to Raye Wood in prison so that Murnighan could obtain information from her. During that period of time Murnighan provided information about two murders: police officers testified that most of the verifiable information had been proved accurate. The State cannot be allowed to use Murnighan as a prosecution witness to obtain a conviction on one murder and then to claim that she is not sufficiently credible to testify regarding the same conversations as a defense witness in the trial of a third party for the second murder.

Furthermore, there is sufficient corroboration of the proffered statements to afford a basis for believing in the truth of their contents. See United States v. Bagley, 537 F.2d at 167. A maroon Monte Carlo was seen near the scene of the crime on the night of the murder. Lima traded in his car, a maroon Monte Carlo, soon after Mitchell was killed. A footprint in the garage matched Lima's shoe size. Murnighan said that Lima lost something in the garage; a blue cigarette lighter was found on the scene. Most strikingly, Murnighan stated that Lima had said that Mitchell was having her menstrual period when he killed her. Lima was trying to excuse himself for not having stabbed Mitchell in the vagina as Davis had been stabbed, because Raye Wood berated him for not having killed Mitchell the same way that Davis had been killed. Mitchell's autopsy had disclosed that she had been having her menstrual period prior to her death. This fact was not mentioned in any of the numerous news accounts of the crime, and the State has been unable to proffer an alternative explanation of how Murnighan could have learned of it.

The inquiry into whether the proffered statement is trustworthy has led a number of courts to focus on the relationship of the declarant and the witness. Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973); United States v. Guillette, 547 F.2d 743 (2nd Cir.1976); Laumer v. United States, 409 A.2d 190 (D.C. 1979). For instance, a statement against interest made to a close friend or relative is considered to be more reliable than a statement made to a stranger. No such relationship existed between Raye Wood and Murnighan. However, Raye Wood had confessed to Murnighan that she had committed one murder. She had been convicted of that murder, and during the offer of proof she admitted that she had committed it. The fact that Raye Wood confessed to Murnighan that she had committed one murder makes it more probable that she would confess to her, during the same period of time, that she had committed another murder.

These corroborating circumstances seem to us ample to support a finding of trustworthiness under NRS 51.345. The quantum of corroboration demanded by the district court was particularly inappropriate in light of the paucity of corroboration provided by the State for appellant's confession, itself given under circumstances not conducive to reliability. Cf. People v. Lettrich, 413 Ill. 172, 108 N.E.2d 488 (1952) (improper to exclude confession of third party on hearsay grounds when defendant's conviction rested on his repudiated confession obtained under duress.)

Additionally, we are guided by our decision in Johnstone v. State, 92 Nev. 241, 548 P.2d 1362 (1976). In Johnstone appellant and two companions were convicted of committing a murder in the motel where they were staying. To show that he was not even in the motel when his companions killed the victims, appellant wished to have a police officer testify regarding statements made to him by a couple staying at the motel. The couple had related that on the evening of the murder they had met two men asking directions to the room appellant shared with his companions. The district court, finding no applicable hearsay exception, refused to allow the testimony to come before the jury. We reversed and remanded for a new trial. We pointed out that the Evidence Code itself declares that the expressly stated hearsay exceptions are illustrative and not restrictive; the general rule is that a statement is admissible if its nature and the circumstances under which it is made offer assurances of accuracy. NRS 51.075; NRS 51.315. The couple's statements fit into just such a category and should have been admitted.

Many of the factors which we found persuasive in Johnstone are also present in this case. Like the couple in Johnstone, Murnighan was not involved in any way with appellant Cathy Woods. She had never met Tony Lima and her acquaintance with Raye Wood dated only from her time in jail. No advantage accrued to her from either the prosecution or the prison authorities for making her statements about Mitchell's murder. There is no suggestion of bias on her part or of any motive either to inculpate Raye Wood or to exculpate appellant. Indeed, at the time that Murnighan first related Raye Wood's statements she could not have known what would aid appellant, for appellant had not yet implicated herself in the Mitchell murder.

In Johnstone we relied on NRS 51.315, which renders admissible statements offering strong assurances of accuracy if the declarant is unavailable. The statute declares that NRS 51.345 is illustrative of the general exception provided by NRS 51.315. The "assurances of trustworthiness" required by NRS 51.345, the more specific statute, should not be measured by a more restrictive standard than the "assurances of accuracy" necessary to fall within the general exception of NRS 51.315.

Consequently, we hold that the district court erred in not permitting Murnighan to testify before the jury regarding Raye Wood's statements. Both the contents of the statements and the circumstances surrounding their making offer persuasive assurances that Raye Wood did in fact make the statements attributed to her and that there is a basis for believing in the truth of their contents. It was for the jury to evaluate Murnighan's story and to decide how much credence it should be given. Furthermore, the district court's ruling was clearly prejudicial. Without Murnighan's testimony, appellant was unable to properly present her version of the events, without which her defense was undoubtedly "far less persuasive than it might have been." Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. at 294, 93 S.Ct. at 1045.

Appellant also attacks the district court's refusal to admit a set of newspaper articles concerning Mitchell's death. The State argued in its opening and closing statements that appellant's confession had contained information which only the murderer could have known. The defense wished to introduce the newspaper articles to show that all the details provided by appellant could have been gleaned from news accounts of the murder. The district court ruled that the articles were not relevant and further were inadmissible hearsay evidence.

Newspaper articles are not inadmissible under the hearsay rule if they are offered not for the truth of their contents but for the fact of their publication. United States v. Halifax County Board of Education, 314 F.Supp. 65, 75 (E.D.N.C. 1970). Nor could the articles be properly excluded as irrelevant. The determination of whether evidence is relevant lies within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Lamborn v. Phillips Pacific Chemical Co., 575 P.2d 215 (Wash. 1978). However, the record shows that the district court based its ruling on the fact that there was no evidence that appellant, who did not testify, had read any of the news accounts. This factor need not have been determinative. Since the State argued that information provided by appellant could have been known only by the murderer, the newspaper articles could have been properly used to show that the details provided by appellant were public knowledge.

Appellant also contends that the district court improperly admitted certain testimony regarding her personal life. Since we have already concluded that appellant was prejudiced by the improper exclusion of evidence, we do not find it necessary to decide this issue. Errors, if any, that may have occurred will not necessarily recur on retrial.

Appellant was charged with a serious crime carrying a severe penalty. She was entitled to a trial at which she could defend herself against these charges. The evidentiary rulings of the district court, taken cumulatively, denied appellant a fair opportunity to present her defense. Accordingly, we are compelled to reverse appellant's conviction and to remand for a new trial.

SPRINGER, MOWBRAY and STEFFEN, JJ., concur.

FootNotes

1. See Kaplan v. State, 99 Nev. 449, 663 P.2d 1190 (1983). Lima, who had been convicted of being an accessory after the fact, was out on parole by the time appellant's trial began. Wood and Carter were serving their sentences for first and second degree murder respectively.