Incline wife killer appeals case to federal court
By Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal
After losing an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, a former wealthy Incline art appraiser has taken his case to the federal court, and has filed a 250-page challenge to his murder conviction.
Peter Bergna, 57, also asked the federal judge to appoint a lawyer to his case, saying he has no real estate, stocks, bonds or automobiles, and has about $821 in the bank.
“The state’s theory that (Bergna) could/would murder his wife by staging a vehicle accident which, by its ‘design’ placed himself in mortal danger, is weird,” Bergna said in the appeal, which was ‘ghost written’ by his former lawyer Richard Cornell.
