All five individuals arrested for the brutal kidnapping, torture, and murder of Nicole Cuevas are currently locked up in county jails (Jason Race, Desiree Linnete, Faith Beamer, and Sarai Doyle are in the Luzerne County Jail; William Wolfe is in Lackawanna County Jail, per court documents).
The next action on their court dockets is the preliminary hearing, set to take place for all five defendants on Friday, May 31, 2024, at 9:00 a.m., in the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
During a preliminary hearing, a magisterial district judge listens to the evidence from both the prosecution and the defense. The prosecution needs to prove there is good reason to believe a crime was committed and that the accused is likely the person who did it.
The judge determines if there’s enough evidence to believe the accused committed the crime. If the judge thinks there is, the case will move on to the Common Pleas Court. If not, the charges will be dropped.
The accused can choose to waive the preliminary hearing, and the case will go straight to the Common Pleas Court.
Personally, I think since there is so much evidence and most of the defendants have confessed to their roles in the horrific crimes against Nicole Cuevas, I’d guess this bunch would waive the hearing rather than sit through a play-by-play of the horror they so cruelly inflicted on another human being. It seems like only Linnette is trying to say she wasn’t present when the torture and murder took place, per the police affidavit.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Sources:
• https://prdpcv.pwpca.pa.gov/available-services/Pages/Preliminary-Hearing.aspx
• https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/#