Prosecutors say defendant faking mental retardation

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

Prosecutors say a man accused of killing a prostitute and running over a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper during a high-speed chase is claiming mental retardation to avoid the death penalty.

Vornelius Phillips' trial was set to begin Monday, but District Judge Lee Gates last week vacated the trial date after defense attorney Darren Richards said experts have said his client could be mentally retarded and that it will take further tests to know.

Phillips was scheduled to appear in court this morning to set a schedule in which both sides will investigate the retardation claim.

Phillips' case is the second time in a week that a local defendant facing the death penalty has claimed mental retardation. The trial of Luis Barroso on a charge of murder for hire was delayed late last week after his attorney said Barroso is mentally retarded.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that mentally retarded people cannot be executed.

In Nevada a death sentence for two-time killer Thomas Nevius last month was commuted to a life sentence without parole because he was found borderline mentally retarded.

Richards said he had been trying to have Phillips evaluated since his arrest, but Phillips was was physically and mentally unable to provide neuropsychologists and other mental health experts with the data needed to determine his IQ.

"We couldn't get him to sit down and do the battery of IQ tests and the other neuropsychological tests which determine mental retardation," he said. "We finally got the dosage of his medication right and we've seen a big difference."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said Richards is stalling.

"Phillips has been evaluated eight times and no one ever suggested he was retarded," Daskas said. "This is clearly a delay tactic."

Defense attorneys initially maintained Phillips was incompetent to stand trial. Phillips was declared competent after mental evaluations by psychologists and psychiatrists from both sides.

A person with an IQ of 70 or below is usually considered retarded. Competency has to do with the ability of the client to assist his or her attorney during the trial, Daskas said.

While the Supreme Court's decision is critical, IQ tests don't lie, Richards said.

"This is all hard science," he said. "If a person isn't anywhere close to the minimum IQ requirement established by the medical community, there is no defense. But if the minimum requirement is there, you have to deal with it. The prosecution doesn't want to deal with it. But they have to. It's the law."

Phillips is charged with murder and other felony charges as a result of the high-speed pursuit, in which Phillips is accused of hijacking a taxicab and a sport utility vehicle.

Police say DNA results link Phillips to Ivy Shunstrom's murder before the hijackings. Her body was found badly beaten in her hotel room at the Budget Suites the same day.

Jurors will decide both crimes during the trial.