OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — State psychiatric experts say an Omaha man is competent to face a death-penalty hearing for killing four people just weeks after he left prison.
The Lincoln Regional Center doctors issued their declaration Wednesday regarding Nikko Jenkins. Jenkins was convicted in 2014 of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of four people in Omaha over a 10-day period in August 2013. It will be up to a district court judge to set a competency hearing that will determine whether Jenkins can understand the death-penalty proceedings and help his lawyer.
A defense psychiatrist has testified at hearings that Jenkins suffers from schizophrenia and perhaps a bipolar disorder, while state psychiatrists have testified that Jenkins is faking mental illness.
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