CASE OF INTEREST
July 18, 2001
Contact: Frank Meyer, Deputy District Attorney, Homicide Unit
(916) 874-6549
Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully is pleased to announce
that James Dewayne Nivette has been returned to Sacramento County from
France to face murder charges in the shooting death of Gina Barnett.
Nivette, (now 58), is charged with the November 16, 1997 murder of
Gina Barnett, with whom he had been living at a condominium in Folsom.
It is alleged that Nivette shot and killed Barnett, (25), at the residence
in Folsom, then took the couple's 18-month old son, Tyler Nivette, and
went to the San Francisco Bay area. It is believed that Nivette fled
to France on a flight from San Francisco early the next day. Tyler Nivette
was found in the predawn hours on November 17th, abandoned, in his pajamas
and crying, on a sidewalk in an industrial park near the San Francisco
International Airport. A warrant was issued for the arrest of James
Nivette on November 18, 1997.
On November 20, 1997, Nivette was arrested by French authorities at
a residence he maintained in Munster, France. The Sacramento County
District Attorney's Office, through the United States Department of
Justice, requested that Mr. Nivette be extradited from France to face
murder charges in Sacramento. In making the extradition request, the
District Attorney's Office assured the French Government that Nivette
would not face the death penalty if returned to Sacramento. France will
not extradite a suspect in a death penalty case. Mr. Nivette opposed
his extradition from France on numerous grounds. When the French Government
finally agreed to extradite Mr. Nivette to face murder charges in Sacramento,
he appealed this decision to the International Court of Human Rights.
This appeal was recently denied, clearing the way for Nivette's return
to Sacramento County.
District Attorney Scully wishes to thank the United States Department
of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of International Affairs, and
especially attorneys Patricia Reedy, Elizabeth Farr, and Randy Toledo,
for their work in achieving Mr. Nivette's extradition. District Attorney
Scully also thanks the United States Department of State, the F.B.I.,
the U.S. Marshall's Office, and the Folsom Police Department, for their
dedicated assistance in Mr. Nivette's extradition.
It is anticipated that Mr. Nivette will be arraigned on July 23, 2001,
in Department 62.
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