Robert Suckoll hugs his daughters, Jordyn, 12, left, and Tayler, 13, after returning home from El Salvador, where he and two other men were held for more than two months after trying to extradite a child molestation suspect who jumped bail. Photo by John Gurzinski.
Julio Cesar Nerio was the reason they were in this mess.
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He was the man who jumped bail and fled to El Salvador. He was the man who told authorities he had been taken against his will. He was the man whose testimony could put them in a Central American prison for the next six years.
The three Southern Nevada men charged with kidnapping Nerio had prayed for a miracle. They never expected it to come from Nerio.
"He just stood up and was honest," bail bondsman Robert Suckoll said Wednesday.
During the men's trial Tuesday, Nerio told the judge he was never handcuffed and had gone with the men voluntarily to face the charges awaiting him in Las Vegas. With that testimony, the charges were dropped, and the men, who had spent more than two months in custody, were free.
"I was in total shock. All we could do was hug each other," Suckoll said Wednesday, minutes after landing at McCarran International Airport.
His partners on the trip, Mark Pruter, 22, and Erick Lippincott, 24, remained in El Salvador for an extra day so they could return the $30,000 bail that a stranger paid to get them out of jail and into house arrest.
Suckoll was greeted by his tearful wife, Lesley, their two daughters, Tayler, 13, and Jordyn, 12, and several employees from his pest control company.
It was a reunion that Lesley Suckoll feared might not come for years, so when she saw her husband emerge from the security checkpoint, she raced into his arms and cried.
"Oh my God," she said. "I can't believe you're here."
"I can't believe I'm here, either," Robert Suckoll said.
The last time Lesley Suckoll saw her husband was the evening of Oct. 12, when he left for El Salvador. As her husband walked out the door, Lesley Suckoll joked that he would end up in jail.
"And it all came true," she said.
Robert Suckoll, 34, Pruter and Lippincott went to El Salvador to recover Nerio, who had jumped bail while facing charges of molesting an 11-year-old boy in North Las Vegas.
At first, the operation went as planned. They found Nerio with the help of local police, and they persuaded him to come with them back to Las Vegas, Robert Suckoll said.
However, they ran into trouble at the airport because Nerio didn't have a passport, and it got worse when authorities accused the men of impersonating FBI agents and taking Nerio against his will, Robert Suckoll said.
The three Americans were arrested and put in an 8-foot-by-10-foot jail cell. They slept on thin mats on the floor, which were covered in human excrement, he said. They spent 18 days in jail before the stranger bailed them out.
They rented a home near the courthouse while they waited for the trial.
"The system is so corrupt, you didn't know what was going to happen," Robert Suckoll said.
He said he asked his lawyer if anyone was bribed, but the lawyer wouldn't say.
There was also the mysterious disappearance of a lawyer representing the officers who helped find Nerio. He reappeared in court weeks later and was asked what happened. He replied, "You know," Robert Suckoll said.
Wednesday's return was not all a storybook homecoming, however.
Robert Suckoll said his former business partner in the Dirty Deeds Bail Bonds business, Tim Deam, had removed him from the company while he was in El Salvador.
Deam said he did remove Robert Suckoll from the company.
Robert Suckoll said he would fight to get his company back, but that fight would have to wait a day. For his first night back home, he had plans with his family.
"All I want to do tonight is go home and hold them all night long," he said.
Nerio remains free in El Salvador. The United States and El Salvador have no extradition treaty.
Wednesday, minutes after landing at McCarran International Airport.
His partners on the trip, Mark Pruter, 22, and Erick Lippincott, 24, remained in El Salvador for an extra day so they could return the $30,000 bail that a stranger paid to get them out of jail and into house arrest.
Suckoll was greeted by his tearful wife, Lesley, their two daughters, Tayler, 13, and Jordyn, 12, and several employees from his pest control company.
It was a reunion that Lesley Suckoll feared might not come for years, so when she saw her husband emerge from the security checkpoint, she raced into his arms and cried.
"Oh my God," she said. "I can't believe you're here."
"I can't believe I'm here, either," Robert Suckoll said.
The last time Lesley Suckoll saw her husband was the evening of Oct. 12, when he left for El Salvador. As her husband walked out the door, Lesley Suckoll joked that he would end up in jail.
"And it all came true," she said.
Robert Suckoll, 34, Pruter and Lippincott went to El Salvador to recover Nerio, who had jumped bail while facing charges of molesting an 11-year-old boy in North Las Vegas.
At first, the operation went as planned. They found Nerio with the help of local police, and they persuaded him to come with them back to Las Vegas, Robert Suckoll said.
However, they ran into trouble at the airport because Nerio didn't have a passport, and it got worse when authorities accused the men of impersonating FBI agents and taking Nerio against his will, Robert Suckoll said.
The three Americans were arrested and put in an 8-foot-by-10-foot jail cell. They slept on thin mats on the floor, which were covered in human excrement, he said. They spent 18 days in jail before the stranger bailed them out.
They rented a home near the courthouse while they waited for the trial.
"The system is so corrupt, you didn't know what was going to happen," Robert Suckoll said.
He said he asked his lawyer if anyone was bribed, but the lawyer wouldn't say.
There was also the mysterious disappearance of a lawyer representing the officers who helped find Nerio. He reappeared in court weeks later and was asked what happened. He replied, "You know," Robert Suckoll said.
Wednesday's homecoming was not all tears and smiles, however.
Robert Suckoll said his former business partner in the Dirty Deeds Bail Bonds business, Tim Deam, had removed him from the company while he was in El Salvador and had tried to sabotage efforts to free the men.
Deam said he did remove Robert Suckoll from the company but only because Suckoll had been embezzling money.
"I'm happy for him, but at the same time I'm just torn up inside," Deam said. "It kills me to do what I had to do."
Robert Suckoll said he would fight to get his company back, but that fight would have to wait a day. For his first night back home, he had plans with his family.
"All I want to do tonight is go home and hold them all night long," he said.
