Murder trial pushed to September for Henderson psychologist
A jury trial has been postponed to September for a Henderson psychologist accused of killing his attorney wife and staging her death as a suicide in January 2015.
District Judge Michelle Leavitt agreed to defense attorney Richard Schonfeld’s request on Wednesday to postpone the trial due to an ongoing issue with discovery and a scheduling conflict. The trial was previously set to begin in February.
Gregory “Brent” Dennis was arrested on one count of murder with a deadly weapon in February 2017, more than two years after the death of his wife, 48-year-old Susan Winters. He remains free on $250,000 bail, which he posted days after his arrest.
About two months after Dennis’ arrest, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg changed Winters’ manner of death from suicide to undetermined — a conclusion that stops short of calling her death a homicide.
Based mainly on information provided by Dennis at the time, the coroner’s office had concluded that Winters, a part-time North Las Vegas judge, killed herself on Jan. 3, 2015, by consuming a lethal amount of prescription painkillers and antifreeze at the Henderson home she shared with Dennis and their two teenage daughters.
But according to his 27-page arrest report, Dennis originally lied to police about his wife’s death and had a financial motive to kill her.
Dennis, who was dealing with a cocaine addiction that was draining his finances, stood to inherit roughly $2 million, including a $1 million life insurance policy, upon his wife’s death, according to the report.
A grand jury indicted Dennis on the murder charge in October 2017. At the time, an expert told the grand jury that Winters likely died of either an oxycodone overdose or suffocation.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
