Prosecutors say fake missionaries’ robbery victim was dealing drugs
Prosecutors on Tuesday suggested that a man robbed by two men posing as Mormon missionaries during a June home invasion was dealing drugs.
Terence Delucia denied he ever sold marijuana, but admitted to buying the drug, while testifying at a preliminary hearing before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Janiece Marshall.
Delucia identified Robert Estall, 25, and Abraham Austin, 28, as the two men who dressed in white collared shirts and black ties and beat him bloody while robbing him at gun point.
Both defendants attended the hearing dressed in navy blue jail scrubs with their arms and legs shackled. Estall and Austin face robbery, kidnapping, burglary, battery and conspiracy charges.
Marshall will decide at the end of the hearing whether prosecutors have enough evidence to take the case against Estall and Austin to trial. The hearing is expected to wrap up Friday.
Prosecutor Shanon Clowers pressed Delucia about how much marijuana and cash was in his home, near Buffalo Drive and Flamingo Road, at the time of the robbery.
Delucia said there was about an ounce of marijuana and $3,000 cash.
He added that it wasn’t the first time he’d been robbed. Delucia said that he was robbed last year at gun point by three other men who stole two ounces of marijuana and $30,000 in cash.
The June robbery occurred when Delucia answered his door and found two men who appeared to be Mormon missionaries wanting to talk about religion.
Delucia said he didn’t want to talk and turned away to close his front door.
That’s when the robbers struck him in the back of the head and pulled guns on him, he told police.
Delucia’s wife and daughter were also in the home and hid, while the robbers asked “where’s the safe” and “where’s the money,” according to a police report.
Police arrested Estall and Austin after releasing to the public images of the two men taken from security cameras Delucia had installed at his home following the first robbery.
Detectives later learned that both defendants were inactive military, who once served at Nellis Air Force Base. It was unclear which branch of the military they served.
Delucia is not facing any criminal charges.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.
