ELKO -- A 59-year-old man was convicted of second-degree murder in the May 2006 shooting death of his wife in their trailer at the West Wendover KOA Campground.
John Dietz awaits sentencing Aug. 27 after an Elko County District Court jury found him guilty Friday of shooting 50-year-old Terri Dietz following an alcohol-fueled argument. He faces a minimum 20-year prison sentence.
John Dietz was a road construction worker who had just moved to West Wendover from Green River, Utah, for a local project when the shooting occurred.
He was accused of placing a pistol into a pillow his wife held over her face and pulling the trigger, shooting her in the head. He then told some friends in a nearby trailer to take his dog and call police.
His sister testified the victim belittled her brother, whose leg is amputated and called him a "cripple." The sister said the victim was screaming so loud that she could not hear her brother speak during a phone conversation on the day of the shooting.
But a daughter of the victim testified the couple never had a "serious" argument she was aware of and that her mother seemed fine during a phone conversation that day.
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