Bernie Tiede Theft Charge Dismissed

HENDERSON — The judge presiding over the Bernie Tiede case has dismissed the convicted murderer’s theft indictment, agreeing it violated Tiede’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, according to the Longview News-Journal and KETK. The action by visiting Judge Diane DeVasto expands the possibilities for Tiede, who is appealing a 99-year sentence jurors levied in April after hearing three weeks of testimony. Defense attorney Mike DeGeurin’s motion for a new sentencing trial, which would be Tiede’s third for the 1996 murder of 81-year-old Marjorie Nugent in Carthage, remains pending before DeVasto.

The judge’s action on the felony theft indictment puts to bed a defense motion DeGeurin filed more than a year before Tiede’s re-sentencing trial in Henderson. Tiede’s jury deliberated almost five hours before returning a verdict that DeVasto clarified in another order, this one issued Monday. The panel sentenced Tiede to 99 years or life, which DeGeurin argued in his motion for a new sentencing trial amounts to two separate prison terms in one verdict.