{"id":2273,"date":"2016-05-13T14:35:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T19:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2016-05-13T17:04:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T22:04:45","slug":"jimmysnukaargentino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/13\/jimmysnukaargentino\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Snuka legal update &#8211; psychologist says Snuka unable to stand trial, has dementia from history of wrestling stunts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-277285103\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><strong>MAY 13 UPDATE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After a two-month delay, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/videos\/mc-former-professional-wrestler-jimmy-superfly-snuka-arrives-at-court-20160513-premiumvideo.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jimmy Snuka returned to Pennsylvania court on Friday<\/a> to determine if he can stand trial in the death of his 1983 girlfriend, Nancy Argentino.<\/p>\n<p>The determination from a clinical psychologist is that Snuka, 72, is not competent to stand trial, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/news\/local\/allentown\/mc-jimmy-superfly-snuka-competency-hearing-20160513-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">reports the Morning Call covering Friday&#8217;s hearing in Allentown, Pa.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Frank M. Dattilio said that after studying Snuka &#8220;several times&#8221; over the past year, he has determined that Snuka is a &#8220;shell of a man&#8221; whose brain is &#8220;damaged beyond repair from years of wrestling stunts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Snuka is also suffering from dementia that is &#8220;worsening by the month,&#8221; and he has &#8220;serious memory loss,&#8221; Dr. Dattilio added. &#8220;He is unable to understand the legal process.&#8221; Dr. Dattilio also claimed\u00a0the pressure of a trial &#8220;would case a severe erosion of his emotional state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Also cited at Snuka&#8217;s competency hearing is that his &#8220;severe mental impairment&#8221; was brought on by a history of &#8220;abusing alcohol and cocaine,&#8221; along with the blows to his head from wrestling, <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/International\/wireStory\/doctor-wrestler-superfly-mentally-incompetent-trial-39102681\" target=\"_blank\">reports the AP via ABC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Dattilio was the first witness called at Friday&#8217;s competency hearing. Other witnesses presented by the prosecutors will attempt to show that Snuka is able to\u00a0stand trial. A final decision was\u00a0unlikely on Friday, The Call reports.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MARCH 8 UPDATE<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3340118048\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>There is another delay in\u00a0Jimmy Snuka&#8217;s murder trial related to the death of Snuka&#8217;s\u00a01983 girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, reports the <a href=\"http:\/\/vip.pwtorch.com\/2016\/03\/08\/john-cena-announces-he-will-not-wrestle-at-wm32-ending-streak\/\" target=\"_blank\">Allentown Morning Call<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A competency hearing was scheduled for next week, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lehighvalleylive.com\/lehigh-county\/index.ssf\/2016\/03\/jimmy_superfly_snuka_competenc.html\" target=\"_blank\">reports Lehigh Valley Live<\/a>,\u00a0but the hearing has been pushed back to May 13.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Kelly L. Banach decided that experts need more time to determine Snuka&#8217;s mental state and whether he can stand trial. The district attorney&#8217;s office disclosed\u00a0that Judge Banach wants to allow for &#8220;sufficient time&#8221; to complete the evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>Snuka, 72, was charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after a Pennsylvania grand jury re-evaluated the cold case.<\/p>\n<p>A gag order was issued to prevent family members from discussing the case while the case goes through the judicial process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JANUARY 15 UPDATE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Snuka&#8217;s murder case will not\u00a0be going to trial on March 22. The trial\u00a0was delayed until a later time until the court can determine whether Snuka is fit for trial.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/wireStory\/trial-delayed-pro-wrestler-girlfriends-1983-death-36333345\" target=\"_blank\">According to the Associated Press<\/a>, Snuka&#8217;s defense attorney, Robert Kirwan II, filed a motion in Lehigh County (Pa). Court claiming that Snuka is mentally incompetent and &#8220;has no idea what charges he faces.&#8221;<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2060089340\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Following a grand jury&#8217;s review of the 1983 death of Snuka&#8217;s girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, Snuka was charged with third degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n<p>The district attorney&#8217;s office is seeking an independent evaluation of Snuka&#8217;s condition to see if he is able to stand trial. The DA&#8217;s office says Snuka&#8217;s health was considered during the grand jury review in 2015. However, Snuka&#8217;s attorney says Snuka&#8217;s health has recently deteriorated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DECEMBER 9 UPDATE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A trial date of March 22 has been set in the murder case of Jimmy Snuka&#8217;s 1983 girlfriend, Nancy Argentino.<\/p>\n<p>The date was set at the latest court hearing Tuesday in Lehigh County, Pa. Snuka attended, but did not speak during the hearing, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/news\/breaking\/mc-jimmy-snuka-pretrial-hearing-20151208-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Morning Call report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The trial is expected to last one week following jury selection.<\/p>\n<p>Snuka is facing charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after a Pennsylvania grand jury reviewed the evidence available from the cold case.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOVEMBER 30 UPDATE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There appears to be some gamesmanship in the lead-up to Jimmy Snuka&#8217;s next court hearing on Tuesday, December 8 in the case of the death of his 1983 girlfriend, Nancy Argentino.<\/p>\n<p>According to a new report, Snuka&#8217;s defense team filed a motion on November 16 seeking discovery in Nancy&#8217;s death. On Dec. 8, Snuka&#8217;s defense\u00a0will reportedly &#8220;ask a judge why state prosecutors have not produced evidence showing the 72-year old murdered his ex-girlfriend 32 years ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution is pointing to the Pennsylvania grand jury&#8217;s review of the available evidence in the cold case, which produced a fresh murder charge. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyitem.com\/news\/ex-wrestler-s-lawyers-push-for-evidence\/article_603e8dd4-97d5-11e5-8534-071b126fe77a.html\" target=\"_blank\">Report at DailyItem.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOVEMBER 2 REPORT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former WWF star Jimmy Snuka entered a Not Guilty plea in the murder of his 1983 girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, at a court hearing Monday in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>Snuka is facing\u00a0third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter\u00a0charges after a grand jury reviewed evidence in the cold case and recommended Snuka be charged\u00a0in Argentino&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>At Monday&#8217;s hearing, Snuka had trouble answering questions.\u00a0Snuka&#8217;s defense attorney, Robert Kirwan, told the court that Snuka is suffering from &#8220;dementia and post-concussion disorder,&#8221; to go along with recovering from stomach cancer treatment.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, Kirwan said Snuka might not be competent to stand trial.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/early-lead\/wp\/2015\/11\/02\/ex-wwe-star-jimmy-superfly-snuka-pleads-not-guilty-to-girlfriends-1983-death\/\" target=\"_blank\">The next hearing is scheduled for December 8<\/a>. In the interim, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lehighvalleylive.com\/lehigh-county\/index.ssf\/2015\/11\/jimmy_superfly_snuka_back_in_c.html#incart_2box_lvl-homepage-featured\" target=\"_blank\">gag order has been ordered<\/a> for all involved parties &#8211; Snuka, his defense team, the prosecution, and Nancy&#8217;s family &#8211; to prevent &#8220;the case from being tried in the press,&#8221; according to\u00a0Judge Kelly Banach.<\/p>\n<p>There are several reasons why the gag order was called for, including comments made by Snuka&#8217;s defense team to the media following the previous hearing, Nancy&#8217;s family continuing to speak out about 1983 events, and concern over the case turning into a bigger story on the national level, potentially affecting a jury pool.<\/p>\n<p>This is especially the case when Snuka&#8217;s attorney, Kirwan, said he might\u00a0seek a change of venue for Snuka&#8217;s trial.<\/p>\n<p>Monday&#8217;s hearing made local headlines in Pennsylvania and was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lehighvalleylive.com\/lehigh-county\/index.ssf\/2015\/11\/jimmy_superfly_snuka_back_in_c.html#incart_2box_lvl-homepage-featured\" target=\"_blank\">covered nationally by the AP<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For more perspective, read wrestling author Irv Muchnick&#8217;s coverage of Monday&#8217;s events at <a href=\"http:\/\/concussioninc.net\/?p=10495\" target=\"_blank\">ConcussionInc.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1329773505\"><div id=\"pwtor-4032400307\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>MAY 13 UPDATE After a two-month delay, Jimmy Snuka returned to Pennsylvania court on Friday to determine if he can stand trial in the death of his 1983 girlfriend, Nancy Argentino. The determination from a <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/13\/jimmysnukaargentino\/\" title=\"Jimmy Snuka legal update &#8211; psychologist says Snuka unable to stand trial, has dementia from history of wrestling stunts\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[571,744],"class_list":["post-2273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_etc","tag-jimmy-snuka","tag-nancy-argentino"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Snuka_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19330,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions\/19330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}