Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Prosecution says Desert Inn holdup not work of amateurs

Pedro Duarte uses headphones on Tuesday to hear court proceedings at his trial interpreted into Spanish. Photo by Gary Thompson.

The violent holdup detailed Tuesday during the trial of Pedro Duarte is much like those portrayed in the movies.

Masked men toting powerful firearms, ambushing and shooting security officers at a local casino, then making off with the loot to a getaway vehicle.

"These men did not (approach) this robbery like amateurs," prosecutor Pam Weckerly said during opening statements in Duarte's robbery and attempted murder trial.

"They were wearing disguises, they had high-tech weaponry. ... They appeared to be wearing body armor," she said.

Weckerly was describing the assailants in the June 1999 robbery of the Desert Inn, which was a small portion of a notorious crime spree.

Duarte, according to authorities, is alleged to be an associate of Jose Vigoa and Oscar Cisneros, two men who carried out a string of brazen robberies throughout Southern Nevada in 1999 and 2000.

One of those robberies included the Ross Dress for Less heist on Stephanie Street in Henderson on March 3, 2000. During the holdup, armored car security officers Gary Prestidge, 23, and Richard Sosa, 47, were shot dead by gunmen with assault rifles.

Vigoa, suspected of being the gang's ringleader, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Ross killings last year and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Cisneros was charged with a robbery at the Bellagio and while in custody, confessed to involvement in the Ross Dress for Less crime. He also confessed involvement in similar robberies at the MGM Grand, Desert Inn, Mandalay Bay and Bellagio, according to police.

He told police that he and Vigoa participated in all of the incidents, and that Duarte was the getaway driver in the MGM and Desert Inn robberies.

Another confidant of the trio, Luis Suarez, participated in the robberies at Mandalay Bay, Ross Dress for Less and Bellagio, Cisneros has said. Suarez is expected to go to trial next week.

Cisneros subsequently hanged himself at the Clark County Detention Center.

In court Tuesday, Duarte went to trial for the only crime he's charged with: the Desert Inn robbery. He faces seven felonies including attempted murder, conspiracy and robbery with use of a deadly weapon.

The jury heard no details of the other robberies or any facts about the Ross Dress for Less killings.

Weckerly told the jury that Duarte, Cisneros and Vigoa carried out the Desert Inn robbery, and that DNA evidence found on a water bottle in a stolen getaway car links Duarte to the crime.

"They left behind pieces of evidence that eventually allowed law enforcement to identify them," she said.

Defense attorney Michael Cristalli said prosecutors are trying to convict Duarte simply because he is a comrade of Vigoa and Cisneros.

"Mr. Duarte is on trial because he knows Mr. Vigoa and Mr. Cisneros," Cristalli said.

In detailing the crime, Weckerly said Duarte waited in a stolen sport utility vehicle as Cisneros and Vigoa approached Brinks security officers Donald Bowman, Charles Fichter and Randy Easton near the resort's sports book. The men were making a delivery at the casino when almost immediately, the robbers opened fire, Weckerly said.

"At this point, the bullets start flying," she said.

Fichter testified he hit the ground and rolled for cover behind the armored truck.

"It's a unique experience to actually sees sparks coming out from the end of a gun barrel," he said.

Fichter said he returned fire and was shot in the leg during the gunbattle.

"It wasn't looking very promising at that point," Fichter said.

Simultaneously, Bowman was shot in the arm, and the assailants fled.

After the shooting and robbery, a witness at the nearby Vagabond Inn saw three men speed into that property's parking lot in a sport utility vehicle. The men pulled out heavy bags and jumped into a red pickup, then sped off.

FBI agents and Las Vegas police subsequently noticed during an investigation that a second red pickup was located in the parking lot of the Vagabond. That pickup, with a stolen license plate, was registered to Duarte, and a fingerprint was found on one of its tags.

Weckerly said the state believes that the robbers either had two getaway vehicles at the scene or that in their haste, they got into the wrong red pickup and fled, mistakenly leaving Duarte's vehicle behind.

In the stolen SUV, the water bottle with Duarte's DNA was found, and a shell casing in the vehicle was linked to shell casings at the Desert Inn crime scene.

"This case wasn't an easy case to solve ... and although he was only the getaway vehicle driver, he is just as responsible as Vigoa and Cisneros," Weckerly said.

Witness testimony is expected to continue today.