Trial for Noriega postponed until spring

The trial of a Mayetta resident accused of the November 2015 stabbing death of a Mayetta woman has been postponed until spring of next year due to the lack of a completed psychological evaluation on the defendant.

That was the Tuesday afternoon ruling of Jackson County District Court Judge Norbert Marek, who noted that while an evaluation has been performed on Wilson R. Noriega, 50, Noriega’s trial — originally set to begin Monday, Dec. 12 in district court and last for five days — cannot proceed without the final report on his evaluation.

“Calls have been made, but the best that the court and the staff can get is that we would have to talk to the person preparing the report,” Marek said. “The person preparing the report is not returning phone calls.”

Owing to the lack of a completed report, Marek rescheduled Noriega’s trial to begin Monday, May 15, 2017, with a possible “second setting” start date of Monday, April 17, 2017, in case a trial set to begin on that date is resolved in time to allow it.

Noriega has been charged with first-degree murder in the Nov. 21, 2015 stabbing death of 49-year-old Leann M. Sanchez at a residence reportedly owned by Noriega's parents on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation. He is also charged with possession of methamphetamines and possession of drug paraphernalia in this matter, it was reported.

Defense attorney John Hoffman of Topeka had filed a motion in late July to obtain a determination of Noriega’s competency to stand trial. At that time, Marek granted the motion and ordered KANZA Mental Health Services to conduct the competency evaluation.

At a pre-trial motion hearing held last Thursday in district court, both Hoffman and Jackson County Attorney Shawna Miller noted that while the competency evaluation had been conducted, the status of the final report remained unknown.

Tuesday’s hearing was scheduled in order to wait and see if the report had been completed and received by both prosecution and defense, and Assistant Jackson County Attorney Brian Yearout, standing in for Miller, said it had not been received as of that morning.

“This is a real concern for the court,” Marek said. “Both parties to this trial are sort of frozen in their tracks without it.”

Hoffman agreed, saying that even if the final report were to turn up this week, he and Noriega were “hesitant to just accept whatever KANZA comes up with.” Noriega has already waived his right to a speedy trial in this case, so if the trial would need to be postponed, he added, “so be it.”

Yearout replied that while he was “not intimately familiar” with Noriega’s case, it was likely that Miller would not have been in favor of postponing the trial but would understand if that had to be done.

The rescheduling of the trial marked the second time it had happened, it was noted. Noriega was originally slated to stand trial in July on the charges, but the trial was “taken out of setting” by Marek at that time after granting a motion to dismiss Noriega’s defense attorney at the outset of the case, Holton attorney J. Richard Lake.

Marek also noted that postponing Noriega’s trial may have an effect on two other trials he is facing, each of which is expected to last only one day. Noriega had pleaded not guilty to all the charges in this and the other two cases this past March.

In one of the other cases, he was facing marijuana and paraphernalia possession charges related to an alleged July 2015 incident. The other case involved charges of trafficking contraband into a correctional facility and criminal damage to property relating to an alleged December 2015 incident at the Jackson County Detention Center.

Noriega currently remains at the detention center on $1 million bond.