LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A federal court ruled an imprisoned former Las Vegas police officer found guilty of a deadly drive-by shooting nearly 30 years ago should receive a new trial.
The order filed Monday by U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson said the murder conviction against Ronald Mortensen must be vacated and that he must receive a new trial.
Mortensen, now 59, is currently serving two life sentences without parole at High Desert State Prison, about 40 miles outside of Las Vegas, following his murder conviction in 1997.
Mortensen, who was off-duty and riding with another off-duty police officer, Christopher Brady, on the night of Dec. 28, 1996, had been drinking and driving around. Brady admitted to police he was driving recklessly and that he and Mortensen “thought they could get away with harassing” the “bangers and dopers and the people in the neighborhood” because they were “nasty people,” according to the court order…