Nissen gets life for murders
OMAHA (AP) — A life sentence
was handed down Wednesday to a
man who testified against his friend
in the killings of three people at a
rural Humboldt farmhouse.
Marvin Thomas Nissen wiped his
face as he was sentenced in Douglas
County District Court for the first
degree murder of Teena Brandon, a
woman who posed as a man and
dated women.
Two weeks ago, the 22-year-old
Falls City man was sentenced to life
in prison for the second-degree mur
ders of Lisa Lambert and Philip
DeVine, who were with Brandon at
the farmhouse. The sentences are to
be served consecutively.
Nissen could have received the
death penalty for Brandon’s murder.
Brandon’s mother, JoAnn, said she
was glad the sentencing was over but
that it was not what she wanted. “I
wanted him to get death,” she said.
Richardson County District Judge
Robert Finn said Nissen’s testimony
against John Lotter, 24, was a signifi
cant factor. Nissen’s cooperation was
“a dominating fact and clearly has
probative value as to the character of
the defendant,” the sentencing order
states.
Lotter, also of Falls City, was con
victed of first-degree murder in all
three killings. His sentencing is sched
uled for Nov. 20.
Nissen admitted he stabbed Bran
don, 21, but said Lotter shot all three
victims.
Brandon, Lambert, 24, and
DeVine, 22, were killed Dec. 31,
1993, in the farmhouse Lambert
rented. DeVine had come from his
home in Fairfield, Iowa, to visit Lam
bert.
Brandon, formerly of Lincoln, had
accused Nissen and Lotter of raping
her one week before the killings.
Prosecutors said Nissen and Lotter
killed Brandon at the farmhouse to
silence her about the rape charges.
Police believe Lambert and DeVine
were killed to eliminate witnesses to
Brandon’s murder.
Nissen agreed to testify against
Lotter under a deal with prosecutors,
who said they would not seek the
death penalty for him in exchange for
the testimony.
Under Nebraska law, sentencing
judges are not bound by such agree
ments.
Finn presided over Nissen’s trial,
but he was joined by two other judges
— Douglas County District Judges
Michael Amdor and Gerald Moran —
in deciding the sentence. State law
allows judges in death penalty cases to
have a three-judge panel pass sentence.
Oklahoma governor says
leg belongs to bomber
OMAHA (AP) — Oklahoma
Gov. Frank Keating said Wednes
day that he believed an unidenti
fied leg found in the wreckage of
the Oklahoma City bombing be
longed to a bomber who didn’t get
away.
“If there were two guys in a
truck, one lit the fuse, and one
didn’t get away from the truck fast
enough, that’s wonderful,” Keating
told the Omaha World-Herald.
The leg belongs to an unidenti
fied black woman about 5 feet 5
inches tall between the ages of 16
and 30, said Dr. Fred Jordan,
Oklahoma’s state medical exam
iner.
A self-described conservative
Republican, Keating said he also
thought political pundits went too
far in suggesting that Republican
politics encouraged right-wing
militia groups.
Keating said membership in
such paramilitary groups was
small.
“You are always going to have
people on the left and the right who
are angry,” he said. ‘To have a few
men crawling around the woods
taking pot shots at tin cans is not a
threat to public peace.”
Keating played a round of golf
Tuesday with Nebraska Gov. Ben
Nelson during an annual charity
golf tournament.
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