LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A man facing the death penalty brutally killed his then-wife’s former lover because she had an affair and got pregnant while he was in prison, infuriating the man who then forced the woman to have an abortion, prosecutors alleged in court Thursday.  

Anthony Newton, 45, is accused of killing Ulisys ‘Cesar’ Molina and then decapitating him around Christmas 2016, dumping his body in a vacant lot in the northeast valley and setting his remains on fire. If the Clark County jury hearing Newton’s case convicts him, it will then determine whether to sentence Newton to death. 

Prosecutors and Newton’s attorneys argued Thursday about whether the jury should hear evidence of the woman’s abortion.

“Paternity has never been established, ever,” Josh Tomsheck, Newton’s attorney told district court judge Jacqueline Bluth. “That is a huge stretch.

Tomsheck admitted the woman had a ‘medical procedure’ at the time, but insisted there was no proof Newton demanded she get an abortion.

Bluth ruled that abortion was too controversial a topic, and that it might affect the jury’s ability to consider it and still treat Newton fairly.

“I have some major questions about the prejudicial effect,” Bluth told the lawyers.

Prosecutors, though, argued the woman’s pregnancy and abortion were part of their overall theory of Molina’s murder.

“That she got pregnant as a result of this affair makes the affair more painful and more upsetting [to Newton],” Pamela Weckerly, chief deputy district attorney, said.

She continued: “To me, it would explain why you’d be really mad.”

Certain of Molina’s body parts – severed from his body at the time of his murder – were never found, prosecutors say, until a woman in Henderson reported finding a hand in her mailbox in 2018 while Newton was awaiting trial at Clark County Detention Center. 

Thursday a crime scene analyst testified that she examined the hand as it was recovered from the mailbox, which she also dusted for fingerprints. Police have not determined who placed the hand in the mailbox.

The jury will hear the attorneys’ closing arguments in the case on Tuesday.
 



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