Wednesday, March 24, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn has signed the so-called "Chris Trickle" bill, that allows murder and manslaughter charges to be filed against the assailant, no matter when the victim dies.
Senate Bill 11, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, repeals the "year and a day" rule that dates back to times when a victim had to die within that time period for murder or manslaughter charges to be filed.
In those times, doctors could not pinpoint the cause of death if a patient lingered longer than that period. But medical science has improved and physicians can say with near certainty that something such as a bullet wound caused the death, even though it occurred more than a year and a day earlier.
The bill was named after Trickle, a Las Vegas race car driver who was shot in the head on Blue Diamond Road at Interstate 15 in February 1997.
He died 13 months later. No arrests have been made. But if someone is caught, the killer cannot be charged with murder since Trickle died more than one year and one day after being shot.
The new law becomes effective immediately and applies to cases from now on.
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