Suspect in 2 stabbing deaths near UNLV deemed mentally incompetent
A man accused of stabbing four people, two fatally, near UNLV was found mentally unfit Friday and ordered to receive treatment at a state mental health facility until he regains competency to stand trial, his attorney said.
District Judge Christy Craig sent Christopher Martell, 33, to the Lake’s Crossing Center, a maximum-security psychiatric evaluation site in Sparks, for treatment of his mental illness, attorney Mace Yampolsky said.
It could take months of drug treatment for his psychological disorders before Martell, based on evaluations by state mental health experts, is deemed legally competent to understand the case against him and offer a defense in his trial, according to Yampolsky.
“They usually come up with a psychotropic cocktail they believe will work,” he said.
Two court-appointed clinicians examined Martell and determined that he was not competent to be tried on the murder and attempted murder charges against him, the lawyer said.
Martell appeared in court Friday on the other side of a large window inside a room filled with other defendants adjacent to the competency court at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas.
He returned to the Clark County Detention Center, where he is being held without bail before his scheduled transfer to the state center in Sparks.
Prosecutors allege that Martell in September stabbed four homeless people living in the vicinity of UNLV. Two died of their wounds.
On Sept. 29, Martell pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon.
The homicide victims were 57-year-old Jody Devries, who the Clark County Coroner’s office said suffered several stab wounds before her body was located on Sept. 14 close to a church east of Maryland Parkwway and Harmon Avenue. Then on Sept. 20, Mary Susan Miller, 74, was found dead from multiple stab injuries near East Flamingo Road and Algonquin Drive.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.