RENO — The lawyer for a Sparks man accused of murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed trespasser intends to challenge the competency of the prosecution’s “star witness” — a second trespasser who survived the shooting at the vacant, rundown duplex.
Washoe District Judge Patrick Flanagan granted a defense motion Friday to postpone until May the trial that was scheduled to begin Jan. 20 for 73-year-old Wayne Burgarello.
Defense attorney Theresa Ristenpart asked for the delay after a private investigator found an eighth, previously undiscovered bullet at the crime scene.
Flanagan also postponed a ruling on her request to subpoena a state social worker to testify about the mental health of the woman who was shot three times but survived at the Sparks residence where Cody Devine was killed in February.
