by Rachel Dahl --
A hearing was held today in the Tenth Judicial District Court in the case of the State of Nevada vs. John Kelly O’Connor who shot and killed Bert Miller last July inside their church building during Sunday service.
The Status Review Related to Competency was attended by several media outlets and Miller’s widow, LuDene, with her son Brian and lasted less than 15 minutes.
Judge Tom Stockard ordered last September that the case be reviewed at six-month intervals until O’Connor is ruled competent to stand trial. Lawyers in the case discussed the report provided by three doctors at Lakes Crossing Center in Sparks regarding the mental state of O'Connor.
“Progress is being made on the path to competency,” said defense attorney Richard Davies during the hearing. Two of the three doctors say O’Connor is not yet ready to stand trial.
“Doctor Moulton said he is fine, but there is still one piece, Zuchowski and Vieth think he is not ready,” said Davies. “We are confident he will find his way to competency.”
Lane Mills, Deputy District Attorney, said the report is the report and takes time, but “we want to avoid any issues down the road.”
Judge Stockard ordered the next review to take place on August 20, 2019, directing parties that if the doctors at Lakes Crossing find O’Connor competent before that time, they are to contact the court.
Mills asked if the next report from Lakes Crossing could be presented a week before the hearing so parties have time to review the information. "If we could get the report a week ahead of time it gives us all time to digest," he said.
Stockard said he will put it in his orders that the report be provided by August 12th and will direct the parties confer and decide if the doctors need to be at the August hearing.
Outside the courtroom following the hearing, Davies spoke to reporters regarding next steps in the process. He expects O’Connor will be found to be competent and the next steps will be to send the case back to Justice Court for a preliminary hearing.
“Cases like this are very sensitive and we need to be meticulous every step of the way,” said Davies. “There is no reason to rush this, the Judge is being very thorough like we expect him to be and that way we know John’s rights are being preserved.”
Davies said O’Connor is “lucid and understands what we’re talking about, he’s fully engaged and present in the moment.” He has been working with O’Connor to identify witnesses and evidence for the defense and said, “we’re confident we’ll mount a defense that takes some of the mystery out of this case.”
Davies has not ruled out an attempt to change venues, saying “we will definitely revisit the venue issue at the appropriate time, it’s a little bit of a sticky issue as part of the case law of Nevada but we think we’re going to meet the elements there to do that.”
He would not comment on the actual cause of the shooting, but did say, “we believe we have a viable defense to this, and it will make sense when we offer it to the jurors.”
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