LAS VEGAS (AP) - A judge in Las Vegas has ordered a competency evaluation to determine if a man accused of killing a 24-year-old model and encasing her body in concrete can stand trial next year.
Attorneys for Christopher Santo Prestipino have said he reported hearing voices while he was quarantined at the Clark County jail due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported . Prosecutors did not object to the judge’s decision.
Prestipino, 46, also faces kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the death of Esmeralda Gonzalez, whose body was found in October 2019 in the desert outside Las Vegas. She was last seen alive in May 2019.
Prosecutors allege that Prestipino and his roommate, Casandra Garrett, poisoned and strangled Gonzalez. Garrett, 40, is due for trial in November on murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges.
Gonzalez worked in the adult entertainment industry and had hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. She lived near Prestipino.
Prestipino traveled to Belize before his arrest in Las Vegas. He was initially freed on bond and re-arrested in January after failing to appear in court for a scheduled hearing.
Prestipino’s former girlfriend, Lisa Mort, is serving a two-to-five year prison sentence after pleading guilty to accessory to murder in connection with the killing.
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