Opinion ID: 1173885
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Permanent Disfigurement

Text: NRS 200.300 provides: Whenever upon a trial for mayhem it shall appear that the injury inflicted will not result in any permanent disfiguration of appearance, diminution of vigor, or other permanent injury, no conviction for maiming shall be had, but the defendant may be convicted of assault in any degree. (Emphasis added.) It is true that the disfigurement in this case was slight, but that was due to the successful plastic surgery that replaced the missing portion of the ear. Absent the plastic surgery, disfigurement may have existed. We do not believe the skill of a surgeon in correcting a disfigurement by plastic surgery should give license to one desirous of committing mayhem. The degree of proof at a preliminary hearing need not be as great as at trial, where every element of the crime must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. At a preliminary hearing, as we have often held, the evidence to meet the standard need only show that a crime has been committed and that there exist reasonable grounds to believe the defendant committed it. NRS 200.300, supra, permits the jury to find the defendant guilty of a lesser offense if permanent disfiguration is not established at trial. Reversed. COLLINS, C.J., and ZENOFF, BATJER and THOMPSON, JJ., concur.