With murder suspects in jail, case moving slow

By Anjeanette Damon
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
September 6th, 1999


Four months after digging up a body buried beneath a Stead home for four years, Washoe County sheriff detectives have completed their death investigation report and filed it with the district attorney's office.

Investigators immediately identified two suspects in the bludgeoning death of Joe Johnston, 46, after unearthing his body in May. But because both suspects, Johnston's former wife Nell Johnston, 36, and her current husband Charles DelaVega, 40, are incarcerated on unrelated charges, detectives were allowed to take their time with the report.

Several days after the body was found, DelaVega told the Reno Gazette-Journal he cracked Johnston's skull with a metal table leg after Johnston came at him with a knife. He and Nell Johnston then buried the body under the house and concocted a story to explain his disappearance, DelaVega said.

DelaVega is an inmate at the Lyon County Jail on charges of failure to pay child support. Nell Johnston is serving a one- to four-year sentence in Nevada State Prison in Las Vegas on a weapons charge.

"Because the suspects are already in custody and not a direct danger to the public, this case was not a priority one as opposed to recent cases with the suspects still at large," said Deputy Scott Shields.

Detectives traveled to five states during their investigation and compiled 1,400 pages worth of interviews, Shields said.

"All the `I's have to be dotted and the `T's have to be crossed," Shields said. "We had to substantiate what he was saying."

Detectives filed their report last week with the Chief Deputy District Attorney David Stanton. However, with Stanton mired in the trial of a man accused of killing a University of Nevada, Reno police officer, formal charges against DelaVega and Nell Johnston may not be decided for several more weeks.

"I've been preparing for (Siaosi) Vanisi," Stanton said. "As soon as I have time from that I will make the decision if charges will be filed. Certainly in this case it appears that way, the question is what charges."
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