Friday, May 27, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

FOUR CHARGED: Police say rumors led to slaying

Report states Palomino owner was angry about ex-doorman bad-mouthing strip club

Luis A. Hidalgo Jr. Police report states Hidalgo Jr. said he wanted someone to "take care" of Hadland

Timothy Jay Hadland said the wrong things about the wrong people, and he paid for it with his life, authorities say.

The former doorman at the Palomino Club was marked for death after bad-mouthing the all-nude club and its owner to cabdrivers, costing the club thousands of dollars in lost revenue, according to a Las Vegas police report.

The 44-year-old father of four was found dead late last week on an isolated road near Lake Mead. Since then, police have charged four people in the slaying, including the son and girlfriend of Palomino Club owner Luis A. Hidalgo Jr., known as Mr. H to club employees.

According to the report, Hidalgo Jr. told an employee he wanted someone to "take care" of Hadland, and he would pay anyone who killed him.

Hidalgo Jr., however, has not been charged with any crime.

"There are no immediate plans to charge him," homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said. "But I can't say that won't happen in the future. I don't know."

Earlier this week, police arrested Hidalgo Jr.'s son, 23-year-old Luis A. Hidalgo III, and Palomino Club general manager Anabel Espindola, who has been described in Hidalgo Jr.'s pending divorce case as his longtime girlfriend.

Because of incorrect information provided by police, a story in Thursday's edition of the Review-Journal mistakenly identified Espindola as Hidalgo Jr.'s daughter.

Police also arrested club employee Deangelo R. Carroll, 24, and Kenneth J. Counts, 29, a California gang member.

All four suspects were charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Las Vegas police believe Hidalgo III and Espindola hired Counts and Carroll to carry out the hit.

Hadland, described by family members as a charming, happy-go-lucky guy, had worked at the North Las Vegas club for less than a year before he was fired recently. The club is the county's only all-nude club that is allowed to serve alcohol.

According to the police report, Hidalgo Jr. was angry because Hadland had been spreading rumors about him and the club, and the bad word of mouth among cabdrivers was costing the business thousands of dollars. Strip clubs often pay drivers to funnel customers to their doors.

During a meeting on the day of the slaying, Hidalgo Jr. told Carroll to find someone to kill Hadland, the report stated. Carroll, who handed out club fliers to cabbies and other customers, enlisted the help of Counts and two fellow handbillers, the report stated.

On the night of May 19 the four men piled into a white Chevrolet Astro minivan and headed for Lake Mead, where Hadland was camping with his girlfriend. Carroll called Hadland on his cell phone and arranged a meeting on North Shore Road, the report stated.

During the drive, Espindola called and told Carroll, "If Hadland was alone, then go through with the plan," the report stated.

Hadland and Carroll met on the road about 11:30 p.m. and parked their vehicles on the shoulder, police said. When Hadland walked up to the minivan, Counts climbed out and shot him twice in the head with a .357-caliber revolver, the report stated.

He jumped back in the van and they sped away, driving into Henderson and eventually back to the Palomino, where Hidalgo Jr. and Espindola were waiting, police said. When he arrived, Carroll told Hidalgo Jr., "It's done, and KC wants his $6,000," the report stated.

Hidalgo Jr. told Espindola to get the money, which she retrieved from a back room and handed to Carroll, police said. Later that day, Carroll told police, Hidalgo Jr. called and warned him that detectives had been looking for him at the club, the report stated.

Homicide detectives linked Carroll to the crime through Hadland's cell phone. When the detectives questioned Carroll, he detailed the plot, the report stated.

The two men who accompanied Carroll and Counts, Rontae Zone and Jayson Taoipu, corroborated Carroll's account. Zone and Taoipu have not been charged in the case.

On Monday, Carroll agreed to wear a hidden microphone during a meeting with Hidalgo III and Espindola at another family business, Simone's Auto Plaza near McCarran International Airport.

Convinced the office was being bugged, Hidalgo III and Espindola had Carroll strip to his underwear and then whispered during their conversation with Carroll. They promised him that his wife would be given money and a place to live if he went to jail because of a murder rap, the report stated.

Hidalgo III, while waving a sword, also threatened to cut Carroll if he went to police, the report stated.

During the meeting, Carroll said Counts, Zone and Taoipu wanted more money, so Espindola gave Carroll $400 for himself and another $1,000 to keep Zone and Taoipu quiet, the report stated.

Hidalgo III and Espindola also discussed ways to kill Zone and Taoipu. They suggested poisoning a bottle of Tanqueray gin before agreeing on a marijuana cigarette laced with rat poison, the report stated.

Before Carroll left, Espindola told him to quit his job at the Palomino, but assured him he still would receive money each week and would get his job back once police "stopped nosing around."

Police raided the Palomino and Simone's Auto Plaza the next day and arrested Hidalgo III and Espindola. They had arrested Counts on Saturday after a two-hour standoff at his apartment complex. Carroll was arrested Wednesday.

The police report does not specify what Hadland had been saying about the Palomino Club, but it states the rumors were being spread among cabdrivers.

A handful of valley cabdrivers contacted Thursday afternoon said they had not heard any unusual scuttlebutt about the lounge, where one driver said $20 could be had for dropping off customers.

"They don't have a bad reputation as a no-pay place," said Mike Vacarro, who retired as a cabbie in the past few weeks. "Not the last couple of years."

In 2002, Pete Eliades, owner of the Olympic Garden near Las Vegas Boulevard and Oakey Boulevard, sued Hidalgo Jr. and two business associates at the Palomino, claiming they conspired with cabdrivers to divert customers from the Olympic Garden, which did not offer kickbacks to cabbies for bringing in business.

If customers asked to go to Olympic Garden, cabbies would use a number of stories to disparage the club, including: Dancers were really men dressed as women, that the club was dirty and infested with vermin, and it was difficult to find a cab at Olympic Garden, the lawsuit stated.

Both sides agreed to drop the case before it went to trial.

One of the co-defendants in the case was Simon H. Stertzer, a Stanford University medical professor and heart surgeon who bought the club to fund his research. He soon sold his stake in the club, however, because of bad publicity.

Hidalgo Jr., a longtime friend of Stertzer's, took over as the Palomino's sole owner.

Hidalgo Jr. and his family had moved to Las Vegas in 1999 after selling a successful auto body business in the Bay Area. Four years later, his wife, Yolanda Hidalgo, discovered he was having an affair with Espindola, according to documents filed in the couple's pending divorce.

After 31 years of marriage, Yolanda Hidalgo filed for divorce in April 2004, claiming her husband concealed his assets by putting them in the names of their three children and Espindola, whom the wife described as his mistress of 10 years, the records state.

Among the assets are at least six properties, including the Palomino Club and 13 acres of land in Oregon, and 11 vehicles, including a Hummer, two limousines and a Lincoln Navigator, according to the records.

Yolanda Hidalgo learned of her husband's secret life from their youngest child. The 17-year-old daughter told her Hidalgo Jr. gave the children expensive gifts and money in exchange for their silence about the affair, the records state.

A retired phone company worker, Yolanda Hidalgo has since separated from her husband, who months ago moved out of the family's home in the southern Las Vegas Valley.

In an interview Thursday, Yolanda Hidalgo said she has had little contact with her son, and only heard about his arrest when she watched the evening news Wednesday.

"I fell to my knees, crying," she said.

She added that her husband kept her insulated from his business dealings and had been living a double life for some time.

Review-Journal writers Frank Geary, Frank Curreri and Omar Sofradzija contributed to this report.