A Clark County public defender told a judge Monday that the sudden shutdown of the downtown public defender’s office has blown a hole in preparations for a death penalty case and asked to bump the trial off the October calendar. The evacuation, the attorney said, has forced deputies to work remotely with limited access to files and investigators. District Court Judge Jacqueline Bluth refused to move the Oct. 5 trial date for now, but set another status check later this month to see if that decision holds.
Special Public Defender Tyler Gaston asked Judge Bluth to continue the trial of Chad Newman, arguing that the firm’s abrupt move out of its longtime downtown building has made it impossible to finish the exhaustive prep work a capital case requires. Gaston urged the court to push the Newman trial to April 2027 and described defenders working from home on county laptops instead of in their usual offices. Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner said prosecutors believe they can be ready for an October trial, but would not oppose a continuance, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The shuttered county office Gaston referenced sits in the downtown Third Street building at 309 S. Third Street, which also houses the Clark County Law Library. The Clark County Public Defender office is tasked with providing full legal services to indigent defendants and staffing multiple felony and capital dockets. With the downtown building closed, defenders have been squeezed into temporary space while officials sort out what to do with the site…