Gary Allen Dillishaw
With an unprecedented four high-profile homicide cases involving five defendants, Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson warned county commissioners last week that it might be a good idea to set aside $150,000 in case they all go to trial next year.
Jackson included the vehicular homicide case against the driver in a March 20 fatal collision.
Jackson said one of the cases is the most complex his office has dealt and could result in calling several subject matter experts for both sides.
A man accused of shooting his cousin at a home in Kingslane appeared in East Fork Justice Court on Wednesday where he waived having a preliminary hearing within 15 days of arraignment.
After hearing from members of victim Charles Edward Wilkinson’s family, East Fork Justice of the Peace Laurie Trotter ordered Gary Allen Dillishaw, 26, held without bail as his case progresses through the court system.
Prosecutors amended the complaint against Dillishaw, who appeared in custody with attorney Christopher Day on Friday and Wednesday, to include charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Dillishaw is accused of emptying a 9 mm Ruger into Wilkinson at a home in the Gardnerville neighborhood around 10:20 p.m. Feb. 13. Neighbors reported hearing the gunshots. Dillishaw left Gardnerville in a 2009 Honda Acura, which was spotted by Mineral County deputies early the next morning, resulting in his arrest.
Dillishaw has been in custody ever since.
On Friday, Wilkinson’s mother, grandfather, aunts and sister provided statements to the court seeking a no-bail hold on Dillishaw.
Wilkinson’s mother said evidence indicated that Dillishaw had called or texted people about the shooting showed no remorse.
“I feel he is a danger to society and anything in his path,” she said.
Day indicated that members of Dillishaw’s family were in the gallery as well, including his father, mother, brother, aunt and fiancée.
Prosecutor Jim Sibley argued that Dillishaw asked for his brother’s keys and left the home to retrieve the Ruger and then came back inside to shoot Wilkinson, emptying the pistol with the last two shots within an inch of one another as Wilkinson lay on the kitchen floor.
Sibley said that when Mineral County deputies captured Dillishaw he had reloaded the pistol and had one in the chamber when a K-9 brought him down.
Day, who took over the case on March 19, argued in favor of a bail closer to $100,000 bondable, saying the defense planned to argue self defense.
He told Trotter that Dillishaw and Wilkinson grew up together.
“They weren’t just cousins by marriage but were friends,” he said. “They went out for the night to have a good time, and Wilkinson became progressively more violent.”
Sibley countered that when Dillishaw went out to the vehicle to retrieve the handgun, he was safe, he had the keys, but chose to arm himself and re-enter the home, where he shot Wilkinson seven times.
“The defendant didn’t just flee but chose to rearm himself by putting a fresh magazine in the gun and a chamber in the round,” Sibley said.
An April 16 hearing was set on Friday.
A preliminary hearing is set for Friday in the case against Gregory Ward in the Dec. 15, 2024, shooting of Kathy Jean Weiland.
An April 8 hearing has been set in the case against Stephen Michael Pawloski, who is accused of vehicular homicide in a wrong-way March 20 collision on Highway 50 in Glenbrook.
Proceedings in the Aug. 14, 2023, murder of Paul Adam Mulkey against two people are awaiting the extradition of Carson City resident Larry Allen Arnold, 48. Melissa Nicole Malmstedt, 42, has been in custody since her Dec. 30 arrest.
Without an eyewitness or a murder weapon, Douglas County investigators pieced together a 111-page report on the circumstantial case by monitoring digital communications between the two.