Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.
A 28-year-old schizophrenic charged in a shooting rampage in 2003 that killed one man and wounded two Metro Police officers will stand trial in October, but he may be going without his medication during the trial.
Frank Robert Lyles is charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon and four counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the death of 49-year-old Kevin Chandler and the wounding of two officers in a gun battle along Martin Luther King Boulevard near Bonanza Road.
On Monday, Lyles' attorney, Bill Terry, unsuccessfully argued that Lyles' charges should be dismissed because Lyles was not allowed to be taken off his medication to testify before a Clark County grand jury.
Lyles is accused of going on a shooting spree two days after he had gone to the Nevada Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services clinic at 2121 Las Vegas Blvd. North. His lawyer at that time, James "Bucky" Buchanan, said Lyles had not been able to get the medication for his mental illness that day because he had been late for his appointment.
Lyles' arrest report says he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was under a doctor's care. He bought a .22-caliber handgun several days before the shooting to carry out what he called his "dream" to kill someone, the police report says.
On Jan. 1, 2004, Lyles was deemed incompetent to stand trial and was sent to Lake's Crossing, the state's mental facility in Sparks. Late last year the state's doctors said he had improved enough to stand trial
Terry said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Nevada case determined an individual suffering from a mental illness who is not on medication during the time they are alleged to commit a crime should be entitled to be in the same state of mind during their testimony at either a preliminary hearing or before a grand jury.
Terry said Lyles' charges should be dismissed based on the case of David Riggins, who stabbed Paul Wade 32 times in November 1987 in the Wade's Las Vegas apartment.
Riggins had been given the death penalty despite his history of psychotic episodes and delusions, which included claims that he was the son of Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the jury verdict and ordered a new trial after determining Riggins had been improperly drugged with anti-psychotic medication for his trial. Riggins opted against a retrial and instead pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges in a plea bargain and is now serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole
Before his original trial, Riggins had requested that the heavy tranquilizers he had been given be discontinued because, he said, it would give the jury a different picture of his mental state than it was at the time of the murder.
He added that being under the influence of drugs made it hard for him to work with his lawyer.
Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz pointed to another U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found an individual can be involuntarily medicated if a judge determines the individual is a "danger to himself or others and the treatment is in the person's best interest."
Schwartz said the grand jury was given Lyles' medical records, which indicated he suffered from a "serious condition."
No testimony, however, concerning Lyles' mental illness was elicited from any doctors during the grand jury proceedings.
District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who presided over the Riggins case, said he didn't feel prosecutors failed to provide evidence that Lyles suffered from mental illness and said it was his understanding of the Riggins case that the right to be off medication was a trial issue that didn't extend to preliminary hearing or grand jury testimony.
Terry said he would be filing a motion with Bonaventure seeking to have Lyles taken off his medication at his Oct. 17 trial.
Lyles was originally charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder, but that case was closed, and on March 11 a grand jury indicted Lyles on the original charges plus an additional three counts of attempted murder.
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