MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A judge on Monday denied a request by prosecutors to revoke the bond of a former doctor charged with reckless murder in a fatal traffic accident.
Mobile County prosecutors had argued that Jonathan Nakhla abused the loosened restrictions of his house arrest by spending the night on Aug. 12 at his father’s home in Daphne. Defense attorney Dennis Knizley said Mobile County Circuit Judge Ben Brooks told the lawyers he would issue an order clarifying that the defendant can go to his father’s house only between the hours of 8 am and 6:30 pm
“It’s the exact same conditions,” Knizley said. “He’s just going to clarify the times he’s allowed to work.”
Nahkla last month asked that he be allowed to go to his father’s home in order to work on engineering equipment to help develop devices to help the blind and people in wheelchairs. His father testified Monday about what role his son is playing in the project.
“It wasn’t going over there and having a nice dinner and watching ‘Fiddler on the Roof,'” Knizley told FOX10 News.
Nakhla is set to go on trial next year. Prosecutors allege he was drunk and traveling at a high rate of speed when he crashed on the Interstate 65 service road in 2020. Samantha Thomas, a University of South Alabama College of Medicine student who was riding with Nakhla at the time, died during the accident .
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