A judge will decide Monday whether to turn over criminal records the defense hopes will shed light on a Carson City physician's mental state when he treated a man who died after a beating four years ago.
Defendant Rocky Boice Jr. has asked for the criminal history of Dr. Richard Conte, who was arrested June 22 in the kidnapping of his ex-wife from her Utah home. He is being held in the Douglas County Jail on $1 million bail.
Conte was the Carson-Tahoe Hospital emergency room physician Aug. 23, 1998, when Sammy Resendiz, 25, was brought in after a brutal beating prosecutors say he sustained at the hands of Boice Jr., 22, and nine others.
"Boice suspects that Dr. Conte did not become implicated in violent felonies overnight," a motion asking for the release of Conte's history states. "It may be that he was involved in various suspect activities in August 1998 which affected his ability to properly treat Sam Resendiz."
In one of a number of defenses alluded to by attorney Day Williams over the weeks, which include police brutality, the motion suggests Conte failed to render life-saving aid to Resendiz.
"Boice has legal grounds to use Dr. Conte's testimony as a defense. Dr. (Katherine) Raven testified (in a preliminary hearing) that the emergency room physician should have drilled holes in Resendiz's skull to relieve the pressure on his brain. This failure to drill holes may be an independent or intervening cause of Resendiz's death," Williams wrote in the motion.
Raven is a forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Resendiz.
Boice Jr. is scheduled to be tried Aug. 26 on charges of murder with the use of a deadly weapon, principal to battery with the use of a deadly weapon, principal to burglary and conspiracy to commit battery with the use of a deadly weapon. If convicted he faces a minimum of 40 years in prison.
Also charged and awaiting trial are Clint Malone, Fred Fred, Lew Dutchy, Julian Contreras, Elvin Fred, Michael Kizer, Silvia Fred, Jessica Evans and Jaron Malone.
Resendiz and Carlos Lainez were attacked in a room at the Round House Inn following a party there where Evans was reportedly insulted and struck by a Hispanic man. The prosecutor alleges the group of defendants went to the motel room in retaliation.
Conte will appear in Douglas County Aug. 22 at a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for him to be tried in the kidnapping of his ex-wife.
Authorities in Arkansas are also looking at Conte in the investigation of a double-murder there where Lark-Elliott's first ex-husband and his friend were found murdered May 19.