Stabile v. Justice's Court of Las Vegas Tp.
| Decision Date | 19 October 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 5262,5262 |
| Parties | Nicholas Anthony STABILE, Petitioner, v. JUSTICE'S COURT OF LAS VEGAS TOWNSHIP, Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Charles L. Kellar, Las Vegas, for petitioner.
Harvey Dickerson, Atty. Gen., Carson City, George E. Franklin, Jr., Dist. Atty., and James D. Santini, Deputy Dist. Atty., Las Vegas, for respondent.
We are requested to forever prohibit the Justice's Court from conducting a preliminary hearing on a criminal complaint charging Stabile with the murder of Arnold Duarte. His petition for prohibition rests mainly on the contention that his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial was violated and, subordinately, upon the premise that it is not lawful for the State to proceed by criminal complaint, since he was previously charged by indictment which was later dismissed. It is our judgment that these contentions are not sound. Therefore, we deny prohibition.
On three separate occasions the State charged the petitioner with the murder of Duarte. First, by criminal complaint which the State apparently abandoned; next, by grand jury indictment which was later dismissed; and finally, again by criminal complaint which is the subject of this proceeding. More than eighteen months have elapsed since the original charge.
The first complaint was met by a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The complaint was abandoned and the petition withdrawn. The grand jury indictment was challenged by demurrer. However, that demurrer was withdrawn pursuant to a compromise arrangement of some kind resulting in the accused's release on bail. At arraignment, the accused entered a not guilty plea, and requested a discovery order which the court granted. That order was to be complied with by a date certain. Trial was set beyond 60 days, the defendant expressly waiving the time requirement of NRS 178.495. 1 The record is not clear whether the defendant's waiver of the 60 day rule was given in order to allow the State sufficient time to comply with the discovery order, and we will not speculate.
After the matter was set for trial, but before the trial date, this court handed down Shelby v. Sixth Judicial District Court, 82 Nev. 204, 414 P.2d 942 (1966). Shelby held, among other things, that an accused is entitled to a transcript of the testimony of witnesses who appear before the grand jury. A transcript was not made in the case at hand. The record may be read to suggest that because of the Shelby pronouncement, the district court directed defense counsel to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. This was done, the writ granted, and the indictment dismissed without prejudice to the State to file another charge. The State immediately filed a new criminal complaint, the prosecution of which this proceeding seeks to stop.
Since our decision in Oberle v. Fogliani, 82 Nev. 428, 420 P.2d 251 (1966), the United States Supreme Court has extended the Sixth Amendment speedy trial provision to state criminal cases. Klopfer v. State of North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 87 S.Ct. 988, 18 L.Ed.2d 1 (1967). That right no longer rests upon mere statutory command, but is now of constitutional significance in this state. However, our statutory law specifying times to govern the progress of a criminal case remains as an appropriate guide to be used...
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Anderson v. State, 6042
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