The Nevada Supreme Court Overturned a Reno Road-Rage Murder Conviction

NEVADA – The Nevada Supreme Court overturned a murder conviction in a high-profile road-rage case, saying the trial court in Reno erroneously considered the deadly bullet through a vehicle window a burglary.

Prosecutors argued that the bullet’s unlawful entry into the vehicle constituted a burglary effectively, satisfying one of the legal barriers needed to convict Wayne Cameron of first-degree murder in the February 2020 shooting of Jarrod Faust.

In a 2-1 vote last week, the state Supreme Court reversed Cameron’s conviction and returned the matter back to Washoe District Court, where he was convicted after a nine-day trial.

The prosecutor’s “bullet-entry” argument at trial was incorrect, the court found on Sept. 28.

Cameron claimed he tailed Faust through Reno residential areas after he nearly hit a motorcyclist approaching him in a cul-de-sac. Cameron shot unarmed Faust in his pickup, according to police. Life without parole was his sentence.

Justice Abbi Silver, joined by Justice Elissa Cadish, wrote that Cameron or the gun had to enter the truck to establish burglary.

Justice Kristina Pickering said in a dissent that the jury rationally delivered a verdict regardless of whether Nevada law “forbids an entry-by-projectile theory of burglary” since evidence suggested premeditation and deliberation.

Credits: USNews