Cases | Martinez v. State, 974 P.2d 133 (Nev. 1999) | 2018
The defendant pled guilty to two counts of battery with use of a deadly weapon after shooting one victim in the chest and shooting a second victim in the leg. He was sentenced to five years in prison on each count and was ordered to pay $67,208.86 in restitution on Count I and $1,668.40 in restitution on Count II, both for medical bills. The victim in Count I paid $200 towards his medical bill as an insurance deductible; all other medical bills were unpaid. On appeal, the defendant argued that the restitution orders were improper because neither the ambulance company, the hospitals, nor the insurance company were victims to whom he could be ordered to pay restitution. With regard to the ambulance company and the hospitals, the supreme court held that because unpaid medical bills are debts of the victims and the medical bills were direct results of the defendant’s criminal conduct, the district court had properly ordered restitution. However, the supreme court held that a sentencing court may not order a defendant to pay restitution to an insurance company because an insurance company pays for a victim’s medical expenses pursuant to a contractual obligation and, by its nature, an insurance company should expect to pay such expenses. The portion of the judgment directing restitution be paid directly to the insurance company was vacated, but the conviction was otherwise affirmed.