Prosecutor: Death penalty considered for British motivational speaker in Vegas woman’s slaying

Death penalty considered for Brit in Vegas slaying

LAS VEGAS — Authorities in Nevada are considering the death penalty in the case of a British motivational speaker accused of killing a Las Vegas woman, stuffing her body in a trash barrel and moving into her home, a prosecutor said Thursday.

“It could potentially be a death penalty case,” Deputy Clark County District Attorney Robert Daskas told a state court judge who entered not-guilty pleas for Michael Victor Lane on indictments in separate murder and attempted murder cases.

Daskas said a panel of prosecutors will decide within 30 days whether to seek the death penalty. They’ll consider whether other alleged felonies, or “aggravators,” raise the penalty level and the likelihood of gaining a conviction that would be upheld on appeal.

Lane, 37, is charged with murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in the November slaying of 44-year-old Ginger Candela, and attempted murder and battery with use of a deadly weapon in an attack on a transsexual man he allegedly met for sex.

Daskas told Clark County District Court Judge James Bixler he also plans to ask to consolidate the two cases.

“After he committed the murder of Ginger Candela, he essentially took over and lived in her house,” Daskas said. “While the murder victim was dead in a garbage can in her own garage, the defendant was having a relationship with the attempted murder victim inside the murder victim’s home. We picked him up in the murder victim’s vehicle.”

Candela’s ex-husband, Eric Candela, 62, of Lead, S.D., was in the courtroom as Lane stood in handcuffs and jail garb before Bixler. Lane spoke only to say he understood the charges against him.

“Ginger was my family,” Eric Candela said after the arraignment. “This is a story about an angel and the devil. I want this man never to be among the innocents again.”

Bixler set trial for January 2011 and endorsed a no-bail order imposed by another judge after the murder indictment was returned Jan. 8. That judge, Clark County District Court Linda Bell, also set bail at $1 million on the attempted murder charge.

Lane is being held at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas.

His court-appointed lawyers, Dan Silverstein and Dewayne Nobles, are expected to challenge evidence in the case, including statements that Lane provided to investigators following his arrest Dec. 3 at a motel in Ventura, Calif.

Silverstein has characterized the charges against Lane as unproven.

Police say Lane checked in to the motel Nov. 28 using Candela’s name and credit card, and was driving Candela’s maroon Toyota sport utility vehicle.

A police report said Lane acknowledged killing Candela during a Nov. 13 mediation session that started with compressions of her neck to induce a deeper trance. Lane told detectives he hit Candela in the head several times with a frying pan and hanged her from the end of the bed with an electrical cord around her neck until she died.

He said he later cut Candela’s body in half and left it soaked in bleach in a trash can in her garage. Police found the body Nov. 30 after Candela’s daughter reported her missing.

The attempted murder and battery charges stem from allegations that Lane used Candela’s vehicle to hit and injure a man 10 days after the Candela slaying. Authorities allege Lane met the transsexual man on the Internet and took him to Candela’s home for sex.

Police have said they were checking Lane’s travels to other cities, including Portland, Ore., and San Diego, where they believe he used the name Chae Saville and befriended women interested in his spiritual healing techniques.