Murder Suspect Wants New Hearing

The attorney for a 31-year-old man charged with gunning down his former boss in Camarillo last year plans to request a new preliminary hearing, saying his client was mentally ill at the time of the first one, authorities said Friday.

During a hearing in Superior Court, criminal proceedings were reinstated against Mikhail Khaimchayev, a Uzbek native accused of murdering software company co-owner Sheldon Snyder, 36, on Jan. 13, 1999.

Khaimchayev, charged with murder and use of a firearm, is being held in Ventura County Jail on $500,000 bail since returning from a year of psychiatric treatment at a state mental hospital.

He was diagnosed as psychotic following his first preliminary hearing, but last month was found competent to stand trial.

A trial was not scheduled during Friday’s hearing so that attorneys can return later this month to argue a request for a new preliminary hearing by Deputy Public Defender Howard Asher.

Prosecutors have not decided whether they will fight the request.

Authorities say Khaimchayev, distraught after being fired, walked into the firm’s Camarillo offices and shot Snyder nine times before turning the gun on himself.

Khaimchayev was hospitalized for several weeks after sustaining a gunshot wound to the abdomen.