Opinion ID: 2551802
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Preliminary hearing and competency evaluation

Text: We next consider whether the justice's court exceeded its jurisdiction in ordering a competency evaluation and failing to conduct a preliminary hearing. Petitioner does not address these issues in their own right, because her argument focuses on why the case should never have come before the justice's court to begin with. However, the district attorney concedes that the justice's court erred in both respects and acted in excess of its jurisdiction. We conclude that the district attorney is correct and that a writ of mandamus should issue directing the justice's court to hold a preliminary hearing after vacating its order sending petitioner to Lake's Crossing for a competency evaluation. The justice courts are courts of limited jurisdiction and have only the authority granted by statute. State of Nevada v. Justice Court, 112 Nev. 803, 805, 919 P.2d 401, 402 (1996) (citing Parsons v. District Court, 110 Nev. 1239, 1243, 885 P.2d 1316, 1319 (1994)). NRS 4.370(3) states that [j]ustices' courts have jurisdiction of all misdemeanors and no other criminal offenses except as otherwise provided by specific statute. No statute provides that the justice's court may try a murder case. Thus, NRS 171.196 applies, which states in pertinent part as follows: 1. If an offense is not triable in the justice's court, the defendant must not be called upon to plead. If the defendant waives preliminary examination, the magistrate shall immediately hold him to answer in the district court. 2. If the defendant does not waive examination, the magistrate shall hear the evidence within 15 days, unless for good cause shown he extends such time. Because murder is not triable in the justice's court, and because petitioner declined to waive her right to a preliminary hearing, the justice's court should have conducted a preliminary hearing. Petitioner's competency is not within the scope of the preliminary hearing. The justice court's role at the preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause to find that an offense has been committed and that the defendant has committed it. If the justice court finds probable cause, the court must order the defendant bound over for trial in the district court. State of Nevada v. Justice Court, 112 Nev. at 806, 919 P.2d at 402 (citing NRS 171.206). See also State v. Fuchs, 78 Nev. 63, 69, 368 P.2d 869, 871 (1962) (holding that at a preliminary hearing a justice's court does not consider defenses or pass on the sufficiency of the evidence to justify conviction, but only decides if there is enough evidence to bind over defendant to the district court for trial). For these reasons, we conclude that the justice's court should vacate its order sending petitioner to Lake's Crossing for evaluation and forthwith conduct a preliminary hearing to determine if there exists probable cause sufficient to bind over petitioner to the district court. At that time, petitioner may choose to seek a competency determination by the district court and seek to have the charges dismissed again under NRS 178.425(5).