Hernandez v. State

OPINION

By the Court,

Hardesty, J.:

The State charged appellant Emmanuel Hernandez with first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for shooting and killing Jose Gonzalez in front of the Palm Hills Apartments in Las Vegas. At the State’s request, the district court admitted at trial the preliminary hearing testimony of a witness who did not arrive to testify as scheduled. In this appeal, we address the burden placed on the proponent of an absent witness’s preliminary hearing testimony to show that reasonable diligence was used to acquire the presence of the witness.

In general, before…