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    Among the 35 names of inmates appearing in the ACLU’s lawsuit one should stand out to the residents of Ely-- Robert Ybarra.
    Sentenced to die for the brutal murder of an Ely girl in 1981, Robert Ybarra has successfully gamed the system in a series of appeals that are routinely dismissed and routinely appealed again.
    Now approaching 60 years of age Ybarra is one of the 35 ESP inmates claiming medical care at the maximum security prison is at best nonexistent and at worst fatal (see related story).
    In a report by Dr. William Noel a retired Doctor of Osteopathy from Boise, Idaho Ybarra is said to be in almost constant and excruciating pain from open sores on his legs that are not being treated.
    The inmate’s condition if the report is rue will probably not engender much sympathy from the residents of Ely and from his victim’s family many of whom still live in the area.
    And judging from Ybarra’s past petitions to various courts there is good reason to doubt his current claim.
    His latest appeal now working its way through the courts claims that he is mentally retarded and thus should not be put to death.
    And like his assertion that he is mentally retarded Ybarra’s claim that he is in physical agony appears to be contradicted by personal ads he has place on various prison pen-pal websites in the past two years.
“ROBERT YBARRA
Dear Sir, Ma’am,   I hope this short letter finds you well. I’m a lonely death row inmate abandoned by family and friends in need of pen pals willing to share the outside world with me so I’ll now tell you a   little about myself.   I’m a single white male,  6’2” 1901b  down to earth California boy with black hair, green eyes. I’m outgoing, honest, with a sense of humor. I received this sentence because of an incompetent  attorney. My current federal attorneys tell me it’s possible I may be released in the near future.    Former Employment: Driller/Mechanic. Former Hobbies: Camping, fishing scuba diving, raising exotic animals, just too name a few I also enjoy(ed) dinner by candlelight, walks along the beach, all types of music and just sitting down and having quiet one on one getting to know you conversations.   Currently enjoys meeting new people, reading, writing, jogging, most all sports  ISO a down to earth sincere, caring female,  for correspondence, friendship, possible long term relationship.  Age, nationality, unimportant.   Thanking you in advance for your time and thoughts.
ROBERT YBARRA #16258
P. O. Box 1989
Ely,  Nevada
89301-1989  USA”

    Literacy experts confirmed that the author of the ad had at least an 8th grade education and showed no signs of mental retardation.
    What is also noticeable by its absence is that Ybarra makes no mention in this or any other personal ad of his medical affliction than Noel and presumably Ybarra now claims.
    however there is a similar theme in the lawsuit and Ybarra’s almost 30 years of incarceration.
    From the almost the moment of his arrest to the filing of this most recent lawsuit Ybarra’s had always claimed the most trendy crime theory of the times.
    While it was the first time Ybarra claimed mental deficiency in his appeals process his claims of some form of mental deficiency formed the bulwark of his pretrial and trial defense shortly after he was arrested more than a quarter of a century ago in 1979.
    In fact it was almost two between the arrest in September 1979 to the opening day of trial in June 1981, mostly due to the fact that Ybarra was ordered to be evaluated by psychiatrists at the Lake’s Crossing Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Reno.
    And while he was ultimately found to be competent to stand trial much of the trial time included often contradictory testimony from Lake’s staff and the accused family on the competence of Ybarra to stand trial.
    As if borrowing a page from the Son of Sam murder trial a year before his Defense attorney Steven McGuire told the court in his opening statement that Robert Ybarra was not guilty by reason of insanity, but that he did admit to killing Nancy Griffith by pouring flammable fluid on her and setting her afire but denied the other three charges of kidnapping and sexual assault. He further stated Ybarra had been hit in head with a part of a homemade swing at age nine, that Ybarra suffered from “Organic personality syndrome” which hindered his life and caused him to suffer from Migraine headaches.
    McGuire said that in childhood Ybarra was scorned and called “retard” because of his mental illness. He said Ybarra turned to alcohol and drugs to “treat himself” when he felt medical treatment fell short of curing him.
    The defense also told the court that Ybarra apparently began hearing voices telling him where to hunt and fish. He married but the marriage soon failed and his pregnant wife left him. Ybarra, in a state of depression, moved to Ely and began to hear evil voices on September 28, 1979 that he would have to sacrifice someone to get his wife back.
    However in chilling testimony the prosecution showed the jury that Ybarra’s actions before during and after the crime were not those of either an insane criminal or of a mentally challenged man but rather of a cold calculating and intelligent sociopath so arrogant that he even volunteered to look for his victim.
    Using the pretext of needing to hire someone to clean his trailer, he took both girls to his home. Then the friend was dropped off and Ybarra drove with Nancy Griffith to the isolated area of 30 Mile Road where he proceeded to attempt to sexually assault her.
    Griffith escaped through the back window of the truck’s camper shell and ran up to the wash where Ybarra caught up with her, they struggled and her tennis shoes were removed, still in the tied position, but Nancy escaped again. Griffith ran up the hill her in stocking feet where Ybarra caught her again and began to beat and kick her. Ybarra removed her tan pants and white underwear and raped her.
    After the rape, Griffith grabbed her tan pants, leaving her underwear on the hillside, and ran to the wash to find her tennis shoes. Ybarra followed, catching her, and again beat and kicked her until her “lifeless” body was lying limp in the wash. Ybarra left the wash area to go to his truck parked about 45 feet away and got a can of white gas, went back to where Griffith was. Then Ybarra deliberately, coldly and calculatedly doused the dazed girl’s semi-naked body with the flammable fluid and set her on fire. He got into his red Toyota pickup and drove back to Ely, Nevada, leaving her to die alone on the lonely road in unspeakable and excruciating pain.
    Amazingly, sometime later, stumbling and crawling, Nancy Griffith was able to make her way from the scene of the savage attack about a quarter of a mile, toward Highway 50, before collapsing in the sagebrush about 10 feet off  the isolated road. She was found a few hours later by two local men who spotted her lying on the ground waving her arm to signal them to stop. The men were horrified at the extent of her injuries and they tried to make her comfortable before they left to return to Ely, Nevada to alert the Sheriff’s Office.
    After getting back to Highway 50, the men were able to flag down the second vehicle passing by, a small red pickup with a white camper shell. The driver was Robert Ybarra Jr. who, when asked if he would return to Ely to alert the police of the badly burned young girl, told the two men that he was on his way to work on an oil rig out on 30 Mile Road. Ybarra offered to stay with the injured girl while the men returned to Ely to summon help. The local men agreed that Ybarra could stay with the girl and told him where she could be found and drove off headed towards Ely.
Ybarra later told the authorities he had driven the area three times but could not find the girl so he went on to his place of employment in Butte Valley. Apparently Nancy recognized his vehicle and stayed hidden in the sagebrush, until he finally gave up looking for her. When she saw the men in the police vehicle, she struggled to sit up and raise her arm to signal to them.
    Then Sheriff’s Captain Bernie Romero of the White Pine Sheriff’s Department was the first officer to arrive at the scene. Romero knew Nancy and her family, but because of the horrendous burns he was not able to recognize her. Barely alive from her grave injuries, Griffith was able to describe her assailant to Romero and told him that she had been raped the night before. She said that she did not know her assailant but said that “he works out there,” and pointed to the north in the direction of Butte Valley. Griffith also told Romero the assailant drove a red Toyota truck and was by himself.

    Romero covered the girl with a blanket and comforted her. One of the men who had originally discovered Griffith and went to Ely for help and accompanied Romero back to the scene found what he first thought was a rubber glove lying in the road. Upon closer examination it was the entire skin from her hand with the fingernails still attached.
    Nancy Griffith was transported to the Ely hospital where it was determined that she had suffered severe burns over more than 75% of her body, her lungs were badly seared from inhaling the flames, and her skull was fractured. She was air lifted to a Salt Lake City, UT, burn center where she died that evening from the effects of the fire and other injuries.
Evidence was found along 30 Mile Road and in what was referred to as the “burn area” in a wash off the side of the road. There were scuff marks in 10 places along the road, the “burn area” and on the hillside above the “burn area.” A pair of women’s underwear was located on a hillside about 143 feet from where Captain Romero found Griffith. One cuff from a blouse and burned pieces of cloth from a pair of tan pants were discovered on the roadside 1,554 feet from the victim’s location. A second cuff from a blouse was found 2,340 feet south of Griffith. A waistband was found in the “burn area.” Pieces of a mirror were found 4,364 feet south of where the girl was found by the fishermen. A blue denim purse was identified as Nancy Griffith’s. Skin tissue was found in various places along the route Griffith had traveled about a quarter of a mile toward Highway 50 from the “burn area” to where she was found.
    While the investigation of the crime scene took place, Robert Ybarra Jr. arrived at the roadblock that had been set up just beyond the “burn area” and asked the officer there if the girl had been able to talk to the police or if she had died from her injuries before doing so. He also asked if the investigators had found anything. The investigating officer noticed Ybarra’s boot prints matched those of the attacker and his boots had blood on them. Ybarra was arrested shortly afterwards driving his red pickup and a gun and box of bullets were found in the vehicle.
    If Robert Ybarra Jr. had been able to find Nancy Griffith that morning before the authorities arrived from Ely, he surely would have killed her by shooting her when he found out that he had not been successful in burning her alive to prevent her from implicating him in the crime.
    Dr. Richard Saunder, the forensic pathologist for the State of Utah, who performed the autopsy on Nancy Griffith stated there were unique burning patterns as if something which was flowing down the girls legs caught fire. The “drip marks” where the skin was burned on her legs were characteristic of a flammable liquid and the girl was probably up with her legs bent or possible standing up for the drip marks to be as they were. A second indication that Griffith was in a vertical position when she was set afire was the charred condition of the area under her chin and the lungs showed searing from breathing in fire. This pattern was indicative that the teenager was undoubtedly conscious when she was set on fire by Ybarra.
From the arrest of Ybarra on September 29, 1979 to its final phase, this case followed a circuitous route through the legal system for almost two years with various delays, evaluations, and appeals. The murder trial began in 1980. At the trials conclusion, in late June 1981, Robert Ybarra Jr. was found guilty of the charges, received the death penalty and was sentenced to be executed for the crime.
    Since his 1981 conviction, Ybarra has filed appeals and petitions in district courts, the state Supreme Court, federal district courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.