Kuhn's hearing postponed; death penalty still considered

FERNLEY, Nev. - Prosecutors in an alleged double murder haven't decided whether to seek the death penalty for the Sacramento woman accused of killing her pregnant niece and cutting the nearly full-term baby from her abdomen.

''Basically, at this point I'm trying to keep an open mind and review all the evidence in an impartial fashion,'' Lyon County Deputy District Attorney John Schlegelmilch said Wednesday.

''I have my own personal feelings, but I'm not going to go into those. I have to separate those from my professional obligation under the law,'' he said.

Erin Kuhn, 31, had been scheduled to return to Fernley Justice Court on Wednesday for the second day of a preliminary hearing, but it was postponed until Dec. 20 because of a death in the family of a defense lawyer.

Schlegelmilch said he will talk with other prosecutors and won't decide until after the preliminary hearing whether to seek the death penalty for the June killings.

Tod Young, one of Kuhn's defense lawyers, said Wednesday ''we certainly hope they won't'' seek the death penalty.

''That's a decision Mr. Schlegelmilch has to make. If he does, we'll be prepared for that,'' he said.

If Kuhn were found guilty and sentenced to death, she would join Priscilla Ford as the only women on death row in Nevada. Ford was sentenced to death for the killing of seven people when she plowed her car onto a busy Reno sidewalk in 1980.

Police say Kuhn killed her pregnant niece, Kathaleena Draper, 17, because Draper backed out of an agreement to let Kuhn adopt the baby, whom Kuhn had named Jeffrey.

Detectives testified Tuesday that Kuhn changed her story several times but eventually told investigators that Draper was knocked out during an altercation between the two at a Fernley motel.

Kuhn, an emergency room technician, told detectives she decided to surgically remove the baby because Draper was near death. She said she performed CPR on the baby for an hour trying futilely to save its life, according to Sacramento police detective Don Parvin.

She also admitted to a detective that she put a latex glove in Draper's mouth and that the teen-ager stopped breathing shortly thereafter. Draper's cause of death was listed as asphyxiation.

Defense lawyers seemed to suggest during cross-examination that Kuhn might have inserted the glove to spare the dying women additional pain, perhaps a mercy killing of sorts, Schlegelmilch said Wednesday.

''That's what the defense is suggesting. That seems to be the impression I have with where the defense is going,'' he said.

Schlegelmilch said he didn't buy it. He also disagrees with suggestions the baby might have been dead before it was delivered and therefore no murder of the child could have occurred.

''That child was brutally taken from a women at full term,'' he said.

Schlegelmilch said the decision on a death penalty would include a consideration of any ''mitigating circumstances.'' He noted Kuhn has been charged with two open murder charges - which could include anything from first-degree murder to manslaughter.

Young of Minden said Wednesday he wouldn't comment on any evidence. He said the defense team won't present any evidence until Judge John W. Ray decides whether to send the case to district court for trial.

''We intend to present a vigorous defense and Ms. Kuhn's explanation of the circumstances at the time we get to a trial,'' Young said.

''You have to bear in mind what the state has presented so far is just the state's theory. None of the people who testified were actually there,'' he said.