BENTONVILLE — A hearing set for Thursday to consider suppressing evidence in the capital murder case against Nicholas Johansen was postponed until after the accused has an evaluation at Arkansas State Hospital.
Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green said she’ll request the hospital return its findings by Aug. 31 with a status hearing scheduled for Sept. 4.
Prosecutor Van Stone requested the evaluation to rebut or confirm findings from a neurological evaluation performed by Miami neurologist Barry Crown for defense attorneys. Green ordered the defense to provide the raw data from its evaluation to the state at Stone’s request.
“We want to have an independent evaluation by the State Hospital,” Stone said after the hearing.
Johansen, 21, of Garfield is charged with two counts of capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery in connection with the deaths of his mother, Christina Bishop, 40, and his grandmother, Louise Bishop, 81. Their bodies were found Feb. 16, 2010, buried near Sugar Creek Road between Garfield and Avoca, according to court documents.
Michael Shane Winters, Johansen’s co-defendant, was found guilty in November on the same charges Johansen faces. He was sentenced to life in prison and is incarcerated at the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Johansen’s trial was set for January but was pushed to Oct. 8 to allow the prosecution and defense to examine transcripts from Winters’ trial and consider suppression issues. The transcripts aren’t yet finished, but Stephanie McLemore, deputy prosecutor, said she spoke with the court reporter Wednesday about the process.
“She’s working on it,” McLemore said.
Thursday’s postponement is the third time the suppression hearing has been reset. The hearing will be sometime after the Sept. 4 status hearing. Stone said the issues at play in the suppression hearing are “fairly limited in scope.”
“The ruling will not jeopardize the case even if it is adverse to the state,” he said.