Two murder suspects to stand trial next year in Pahrump

The two Pahrump brothers facing murder charges are scheduled to go to trial next year.

Michael Wilson and Dakota Saldivar confessed last summer to stabbing and beating their mother, Dawn Liebig, 46, to death because they did not like her parenting style, Nye County Sheriff’s Office detectives said.

The charges the 18-year-olds are facing include murder, conspiracy to commit murder, domestic battery with a deadly weapon and obstruction, according to authorities.

Wilson’s trial is slated for approximately 14 days starting on March 23, 2020, while Saldivar’s trial is scheduled to begin on June 15, 2020 before Nye County Fifth District Court Judge Kimberly Wanker, according to court documents.

Though the defendants confessed to detectives of their respective roles in the alleged killing just prior to their arrest, both pleaded not guilty during their arraignment last October.

It should also be noted that although the teens appeared as co-defendants in justice court before Justice of the Peace Kent Jasperson, Nye County Deputy District Attorney Michael Vieta-Kabel said the brothers will be tried separately in district court.

“When you try co-defendants together, it can raise all sorts of issues,” Vieta-Kabel said. “I don’t want to really go into the facts on this particular case, but some of those issues do exist in this case. Both defendants were arraigned and essentially that just means that the judge asks them if they were aware of the charges and understood the charges.”

Both Saldivar and Wilson were arrested in the early morning hours of Aug. 1, after the teens confessed to the murder.

After confessing, the teens led authorities to a shallow gravesite not far from the Wedgewood Street residence where their mother’s decomposing body was located, law enforcement reported.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com