S-22-0412 State of Nebraska (Appellee) v. Ross S. Lorello, III (Appellant)
Appeal from the District Court for Douglas County, Judge W. Russell Bowie
Attorneys: Jerry Hug (Hug & Jacobs, LLC for Appellant) and Matthew Lewis (Asst. Attorney General for Appellee).
Criminal: First-Degree Murder and Use of a Weapon to Commit a Felony
Proceedings below: A jury convicted Appellant of First-Degree Murder and Use of a Weapon to Commit a Felony for which he was sentenced to life in prison and forty-seven (47) to fifty (50) years in prison, respectively. Life imprisonment cases are automatic and direct appeals to the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Issues: Appellant makes the following assignments of error: 1) There was insufficient evidence to convict the Appellant of Murder in the First Degree and Use of a Weapon to Commit a Felony; 2) The trial court erred in admitting evidence consisting of manipulated video surveillance from multiple sources in attempt to match the walking pattern of the individuals in those videos to a video depicting the Appellant walking; 3) Appellant received ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Appellant’s 5th and 14th Amendment rights to effective assistance of counsel where trial counsel failed to investigate Appellant’s reports of witnessing one occasion during the trial where a juror and members of the victim’s family were conversing in the Courthouse and another occasion during the trial where a member of the prosecutor’s office was present for a conversation between a juror and a member of the victim’s family.