Tuesday, July 5, 2022 | 3:36 p.m.
FERNLEY — A Nevada judge said Tuesday she won't decide until September whether to proceed toward a trial in Lyon County on all the charges facing a man accused of kidnapping and killing a Fernley teenager in March.
Public defenders for Troy Driver filed a motion last week to dismiss the first-degree murder charge in justice court in Fernley. They argue he can't be tried on that charge in Lyon County because 18-year-old Naomi Irion was killed in neighboring Churchill County.
Lyon County District Attorney Stephen Rye told Justice of the Peace Lori Matheus in court in Fernley on Tuesday he plans to file his formal opposition to the motion next week.
Matheus said she'll give him until July 20 to do so. She said she plans to hear arguments about the dispute in mid-September at the same time she scheduled a preliminary hearing on the murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary and destruction of evidence charges.
That hearing Sept. 13-15 will determine whether there's enough evidence to bound Driver over for trial in Lyon County District Court on some or all of the charges.
Authorities found Irion's body March 29 buried in the high desert of Churchill County northeast of Fernley where they say she was abducted from a Walmart parking lot on March 12.
