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Nevada Supreme Court strikes down deadline in Gardnerville, Reno murders

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2019, file photo, Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, of El Salvador, is escorted into the courtroom for his initial appearance in Carson City Justice Court in Carson City, Nev. Lawyers for Martinez-Guzman, a Salvadoran immigrant charged with four northern Nevada homicides, want to postpone his trial to determine whether he suffers from an intellectual disability that disqualifies him for the death penalty. Public defenders for 20-year-old Martinez-Guzman have filed a motion for a continuance in the trial scheduled to begin April 6, 2020, perhaps delaying it until Feb. 2021. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2019, file photo, Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, of El Salvador, is escorted into the courtroom for his initial appearance in Carson City Justice Court in Carson City, Nev. Lawyers for Martinez-Guzman, a Salvadoran immigrant charged with four northern Nevada homicides, want to postpone his trial to determine whether he suffers from an intellectual disability that disqualifies him for the death penalty. Public defenders for 20-year-old Martinez-Guzman have filed a motion for a continuance in the trial scheduled to begin April 6, 2020, perhaps delaying it until Feb. 2021. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File)

By Scott Sonner Associated Press

Friday, April 9, 2021

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RENO — The Nevada Supreme Court struck down a deadline Friday that a district judge set later this month for a Salvadoran immigrant's lawyers to file a motion claiming he's intellectually disabled and therefore can't be executed if convicted of murdering a Reno couple and two other woman.
Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 22, is scheduled to go to trial in Washoe District Court in Reno on Sept. 20 on charges he killed all four during an 11-day rampage in two counties in January 2019.
Judge Connie Steinheimer had set an April 20 deadline for his public defenders to file a motion that would trigger evidentiary hearings to determine whether he's intellectually disabled and as a result ineligible for the death penalty under the U.S. Constitution and Nevada law.
His lawyers say state law requires such motions be filed no later than 10 days before the trial is scheduled to begin. The filed an emergency motion March 29 with the Supreme Court seeking to vacate the deadline and stay the proceedings indefinitely.
The justices granted their request Friday pending further order of the high court.
"We conclude that, on balance, the pertinent factors weigh in favor of a stay," Chief Justice James Hardesty wrote in the two-page opinion.

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