By Noble Brigham
Las Vegas Review-Journal
LAS VEGAS — A former Las Vegas police officer whose 1997 murder conviction was overturned is a free man for the first time in almost 30 years.
Ronald Mortensen, 59, was released from prison Tuesday after making a guilty plea last week, according to a spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Mortensen was serving a life-without-parole sentence for the 1996 off-duty shooting death of 21-year-old Daniel Mendoza until his prior conviction was overturned by a federal judge, based on findings of faulty jury instructions and prosecutorial misconduct.
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Prosecutors could have retried him but instead worked out a plea deal that allowed him to be released. Mortensen admitted to counts of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder on July 1 and received a 14- to 35-year sentence.
Despite Mortensen’s decades-long insistence that he was innocent, District Attorney Steve Wolfson said the plea meant Mortensen admitted to being the shooter.
Mortensen could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
In December 1996, Mortensen and Christopher Brady, a fellow Metropolitan Police Department officer, celebrated Mortensen’s birthday. They drank heavily, then drove to a Hispanic neighborhood. There, Brady later claimed, Mortensen fired a gun from the truck Brady was driving.
Mortensen claimed Brady was the shooter. Brady, whose father was a longtime Metro officer, was treated as a witness and was not prosecuted by the district attorney’s office.
Brady received a nine-year prison sentence in a separate federal case after he admitted to violating the civil rights of Hispanic people.
Senior U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson wrote in his March 31 ruling that prosecutors suppressed evidence that Brady may have told another officer he wanted to carry out a drive-by shooting.
Retired prosecutor William Koot has denied that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped Mortensen.
Attorney Tony Farmani, who was appointed to represent Mortensen in 2019, said he did not know what Mortensen’s plans for the future would be.
But Farmani said he did not anticipate that the guilty plea would make Mortensen’s post-release life harder.
“I think he’s a stand-up guy, and I think people will love him and are going to give him work,” the lawyer said.
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Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
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