LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 66-year-old man who is accused of fatally shooting a Nevada highway patrolman will stand trial.
Justice of the Peace Mason Simons ruled Thursday at a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence for John Dabritz to stand trial.
Body camera and dash camera video of Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Ben Jenkins’ last moments were shown publicly for the first time at the hearing, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The video from the March 27 shooting shows Jenkins being shot twice. Dr. Lisa Gavin, a medical examiner for the Clark County coroner’s office, which conducted Jenkins’ autopsy, testified Thursday that the first bullet struck Jenkins in the back and then shattered. That bullet created three exit wounds on the front of his body and caused his right lung to collapse.
The dash camera footage then shows a man, who prosecutors said is Dabritz, setting fire to his own vehicle and the officer’s body before driving off in the patrol vehicle.
Dabritz was arrested later that day after a manhunt. He was charged with murder, third-degree arson, grand larceny of a motor vehicle and grand larceny of a firearm.
Dabritz, who is diagnosed with Type 1 bipolar disorder, could be sentenced to death. His defense attorneys Kirsty Pickering and Richard Sears, said they plan to use an insanity defense at trial, according to the Review-Journal.
He did not attend the hearing due to prison transfer restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, where he will stay as he awaits trial.
In the months after his arrest, law enforcement linked Dabritz to other crimes, including a series of shootings in Wells and Ely and the detonation of an explosive device in central Nevada that authorities said was linked to “anti-government extremism.”
The Review-Journal previously reported that Dabritz had been a “brilliant chemist” in California in the 1980s, according to his ex-wife, Haydee.
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