Martinez-Guzman's lawyers want to postpone murder trial to conduct mental evaluation
Lawyers for a Salvadoran immigrant charged with killing four Northern Nevadans in January last year want to postpone his murder trial indefinitely until their experts can safely travel to South America to interview his family and friends as part of a mental disability evaluation.
On Monday, public defenders for Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 21, filed a motion of continuance for his trial, which was set to start on Aug. 31.
Martinez-Guzman is accused of murdering 56-year-old Connie Koontz and 74-year-old Sophia Renken, both of Gardnerville, and Reno couple Jerry and Sherri David, both in their 80s.
According to court records, his defense team argued they need to send their medical experts to El Salvador to interview his family members, friends and other acquaintances to determine whether he has an intellectual disability that would make him ineligible for the death penalty if convicted.
The only obstacle preventing their experts from traveling is the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frustration on both sides
According to his defense team, Martinez-Guzman is only "seeking to have the time necessary to conduct a reliable investigation" so that the court can decide if he lives or dies.
“The only party that will benefit from an unreliable investigation, in the short term, is the State,” defense attorneys later said in their argument filed Monday.
The recent court filings were made following a three-day hearing in late July.
At the end of the hearing, Second District Court Judge Connie Steinheimer ordered both parties to file their arguments before she could make a ruling on the case.
Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks said his team plans to respond within the next 10 days.
“We think the victims and the victims’ family members deserve better and that the trial needs to go forward,” Hicks said in a recent interview with the Reno Gazette Journal.
Hicks argued the defense’s experts should be able to conduct their evaluation using Internet-based communication platforms such as Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime.
He emphasized that Martinez-Guzman has also been using Zoom to talk to his relatives in El Salvador.
“We can’t just throw our hands up in the air and suspend this trial indefinitely until who knows when,” Hicks said.
Meanwhile, Martinez-Guzman’s lawyers argued it’s necessary for their expert to assess and understand what his life was like growing up.
That means understanding the community, the church, the school and the neighborhood that their client lived in.
The investigation would also look at whether Martinez-Guzman was exposed to harmful substances as a baby or if he was traumatized, mistreated or neglected.
It also means talking to school teachers, friends, neighbors and anyone else he interacted with.
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“There is no workaround that is acceptable,” Martinez-Guzman’s attorneys said in their court filing. “There is no other method, including Zoom or phone calls that have been relied on in any other capital case during this pandemic.”
The defense team also argued most records would likely need to be requested in person.
Hicks said it’s common for defense attorneys to assert that their clients are intellectually disabled, particularly in capital cases.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/crime...or/3395964001/
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