An illegal alien will undergo a mental health evaluation before he stands trial for allegedly murdering 30-year-old Maris Mareen DiGiovanni, a showgirl, and 47-year-old Brent Allan Hallett, a Canadian tourist, on the Las Vegas, Nevada, strip last week.
As Breitbart News reported, 32-year-old illegal alien Yoni Barrios from Guatemala was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder after he allegedly went on a stabbing spree on the Las Vegas strip.
According to prosecutors, Barrios stabbed DiGiovanni and Hallett to death. DiGiovanni was working as a showgirl, and Hallett was on vacation from Canada with his wife Carmelita. Barrios is said to have left six other Americans and tourists wounded in the rampage.
While in court this week, the Reno Gazette Journal reports that Barrios will undergo a mental health evaluation to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial:
The mental state of a man accused in a deadly stabbing spree on the Las Vegas Strip will be evaluated, a public defender revealed Tuesday in court. [Emphasis added]
…
Barrios was formally charged in court Tuesday morning with two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder. He faces life in prison or capital punishment if convicted of the murder charges. Public defender Scott Coffee said his office will evaluate whether Barrios is competent to stand trial ahead of a preliminary hearing in the case currently scheduled for Jan. 12. [Emphasis added]
Barrios’s case is only the latest where defense attorneys seek to use mental health issues or lack of education as a means to avoid the death penalty.
In 2019, as Breitbart News chronicled, an illegal alien from El Salvador went on a murder spree that left four Americans dead, including Gerald and Sharon David. The killer avoided the death penalty when his defense claimed he was “mentally disabled,” citing his lack of education in El Salvador and low IQ.
Barrios perhaps would not have traveled to Las Vegas at all had the sanctuary state of California prosecuted him on domestic violence charges filed in 2018. Instead, former Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey (D) failed to prosecute Barrios on the charges, and the state’s sanctuary policy helped keep him out of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Barrios remains in Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department custody without bail.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.