Reno, NV (AP) — Lawyers for a 22-year-old Salvadoran immigrant accused of killing four people in two counties in 2019 urged Nevada’s Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn for a second time a Washoe County judge’s ruling that he can be tried for all the crimes in district court in Reno.
Prosecutors countered that Washoe County has the authority to conduct a single trial primarily because Wilber Ernest Martinez-Guzman fatally shot all four victims with the same gun he stole from a Reno couple before committing the Douglas County homicides.
The high court rejected the prosecution’s argument last March and ordered Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer to revisit the matter. But she ruled again in September that prosecutors had sufficiently connected the crimes to try him in one location.
Martinez-Guzman’s lawyers appealed again last fall and both sides went before the justices Wednesday via video hookup to make their oral arguments.
Public defender John Petty said Steinheimer disregarded the justices’ instructions to determine whether the grand jury that indicted Martinez-Guzman was presented with enough evidence to establish legal jurisdiction in Washoe County.
Prosecutor Marilee Cate argued Steinheimer’s ruling was based on reasonable inferences that Martinez-Guzman formed the intent to commit the Douglas County crimes while in Washoe County.