Cavanaugh v. State

OPINION

Appellant Patrick Cavanaugh was the mastermind of a fraudulent scheme to purchase furniture with stolen, forged checks. A “secret witness” article in a Las Vegas newspaper pictured Cavanaugh’s putative wife, Diana, as a suspect in the scheme and offered a reward for information concerning the woman and her participation in the fraud. The State’s theory, presented through testimony at trial, was that Cavanaugh believed that an acquaintance, Nathaniel “Buster” Wilson, had seen the article displaying the photograph of Diana and intended to inform the police. In order to prevent Wilson…