## Facts

- Glenn E. Christiernsson’s body was found in the Nevada desert, and Kenneth Harvey Hicks was charged with Christiernsson’s murder in justice court.
- After an extensive preliminary examination, the justice of the peace dismissed the murder charge and discharged Hicks because the State failed to prove the corpus delicti of murder, including that death resulted from a criminal agency.
- Following dismissal, the district attorney petitioned the district court for leave to file a murder information under NRS 173.035(2), submitting:
  - The preliminary-hearing transcript;
  - An affidavit from Ronald Elton King (Hicks’s jail cellmate) asserting Hicks confessed to killing Christiernsson by beating and stabbing him; and
  - An affidavit from a deputy district attorney asserting the submitted materials justified filing the information.
- The district court granted leave to file the information; Hicks was rearrested and sought habeas corpus relief.
- The district court denied habeas relief; Hicks appealed.
- Aside from the alleged confession, the record contained no evidence establishing the cause of death or physical indications consistent with beating or stabbing, and no independent proof that the death was homicidal rather than accidental or natural.
- The State also relied on circumstances that Hicks had been seen with Christiernsson before the disappearance and was later found driving Christiernsson’s car.

## Issues

1. Whether the materials presented to the district court before filing the information established independent proof of the corpus delicti of murder and probable cause to believe Hicks committed murder.
2. Whether an alleged confession to a jailhouse informant, without independent evidence of a criminal death, can support filing a murder information and continued detention.
3. Whether circumstantial evidence connecting Hicks to the victim (including possession of the victim’s car) can supply probable cause for murder absent independent proof that a homicide occurred.

## Decision

- The Nevada Supreme Court reversed the order denying the writ of habeas corpus.
- The court held the record before the district court was devoid of independent proof of the corpus delicti necessary to support a murder information.
- The court declined to decide the degree of compliance required by NRS 173.035(2) or that statute’s constitutionality, limiting review to whether corpus delicti and probable cause were shown on the record presented.
- The alleged confession in the jailhouse affidavit could not, by itself, establish corpus delicti or probable cause for murder.
- Evidence that Hicks was seen with the victim and later drove the victim’s car did not cure the absence of independent proof that the victim’s death resulted from a criminal agency.

## Legal Principles

- To justify filing and sustaining a murder charge for purposes of pretrial detention, the State must show probable cause that (1) a crime was committed and (2) the accused committed it.
- Corpus delicti of murder requires proof not only of death but that death resulted from a criminal agency.
- A defendant’s confession or admission cannot supply the required corpus delicti; independent evidence of the corpus delicti must exist before a confession may be used to support the charge.
- Circumstantial evidence linking the accused to the victim is material to probable cause for murder only if the corpus delicti of murder has first been independently established.

## Conclusion

Because the State failed to present independent evidence that Christiernsson’s death was caused by a criminal act, the murder information and Hicks’s detention lacked the required showing of corpus delicti and probable cause, and habeas relief was required.


Hicks v. Sheriff, Clark Cnty., 86 Nev. 67, 464 P.2d 462 (Nev. 1970)