Supreme Court reverses conviction in Vegas bookie's murder

A Las Vegas woman convicted of the July 1966 murder of her bookie-boyfriend despite her claim he was ''hit'' by the mob won a new trial Thursday from the Nevada Supreme Court.

The high court ruled in favor of Amy DeChant, overturning her October 1998 conviction for the murder of Bruce Weinstein. The conviction resulted in a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Justices said the trial judge erred in allowing testimony from a former homicide investigator, who termed DeChant's mob hit account a ''fairy tale.'' The high court noted prosecutors used the same phrase later in the trial.

DeChant's lawyer had argued she deserved a new trial because of the statements and the trial judge's errors, and because prosecutors presented insufficient evidence.

Prosecutors said DeChant and Robert Jones, an employee of her carpet-cleaning business, killed Weinstein, dumped his body in the desert near Mesquite and then DeChant fled the state with $135,000 of the dead man's money.

A year after the murder, a pistol traced to Jones was found hidden under a bush, but prosecutors said it was too rusty to positively match it as the gun used to kill Weinstein.

Jones was acquitted of murder charges but convicted of being an accessory to Weinstein's death.