Bio 

Stanko Jukich was born on December 23, 1896, in Yugoslavia. By the 1920s, he was living in White Pine County, Nevada, where he worked as a miner in Ruth, a mining community near Ely. Public records identify him as a Yugoslav immigrant and a boarding-house resident in the same household connected to Jennie Medak’s family.

Jukich boarded at the home operated by Jennie Medak’s mother. Through that arrangement, he became familiar with the Medak family. Available records state that Jukich had developed romantic feelings for Jennie, who was still a teenager. Some later accounts describe a prior betrothal or expectation of marriage, but the strongest verified point is that Jennie rejected Jukich’s interest and intended to marry another man.

Murder Story

On February 14, 1925, Stanko Jukich shot and killed 16-year-old Jennie Medak inside her parents’ home in Ruth, White Pine County, Nevada. The killing was described as the result of jealousy after Jennie rejected Jukich’s affection and became engaged to another man.

Jukich was arrested, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder. The Nevada Supreme Court later reviewed the case in State v. Jukich, confirming that Jukich had been convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. The court affirmed the judgment on January 12, 1926.

After his appeals failed, Jukich was executed at Nevada State Prison in Carson City on May 21, 1926. He died by lethal gas/asphyxiation, making him one of Nevada’s early gas-chamber executions.