Confessed killer says he sees woman he bludgeoned in hallucinations

Noel "Greyhound" Stevens, who confessed to killing a Palms waitress, admitted in court Thursday to hallucinating and hearing voices.

But, he said, those illusions played no role in the bludgeoning of the 46-year-old mother, Shauna Tiaffay, in her Summerlin apartment. Prosecutors say her husband, George Tiaffay, a former Las Vegas firefighter and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, paid $600 Stevens for the Sept. 2012 slaying.

Toward the end of Stevens's testimony, District Judge Eric Johnson read a handwritten question from a juror in Tiaffay's trial on murder, burglary, robbery and conspiracy charges.

"Did the voices you said you heard tell you to kill Shauna?"

"No," Stevens responded.

Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo followed: "Who told you to kill Shauna?"

"George."

Defense lawyer Robert Langford has tried to paint Stevens as a liar with mental troubles.

Rocking back and forth on the witness stand with an occasional twitch, Stevens spoke with slurred speech and a stutter. He claimed he regularly drank 101-proof Wild Turkey by the gallon. He said that since being held in the Clark County Detention Center he has taken at least two forms of medication, but was unsure of the names. His skin appeared pale from having spent much of three years in isolation, and his large Afro was unkempt.

"Sometimes I see Shauna," he said.

A day earlier, his longtime friend William Pennix testified that Stevens often made up lies, particularly about crimes he planned to commit.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, I would put him at maybe one-and-a-half," Pennix said. "One-and-a-half being not honest at all."

But a day after the killing, Stevens confessed to Pennix, who said he later saw a television news story about Tiaffay's death.

Pennix then brought police to Stevens.

Prosecutors said Stevens and George Tiaffay had been friends for years. By late 2012, the firefighter's relationship with his wife had fallen apart, and she told them they would not likely get back together.

Stevens testified that George Tiaffay first offered $1,000 for the hit. And when the Las Vegas Fire Department captain upped the price to $5,000, Stevens said, he listened closer. Ultimately, he said, he received only $600 before his arrest.

Stevens described several different plans for the killing. He ultimately confessed to hitting Shauna Tiaffay several times in the head with a hammer after she returned home from work early on the morning of Sept. 29, 2012.

Late Thursday, jurors watched surveillance video from a Walmart that showed Stevens and George Tiaffay buying clothing, a knife and a hammer, though the tools were not those used in the slaying. Stevens said he made several dry runs before he killed Shauna Tiaffay, at one point burglarizing her apartment. He testified that during one of those dry runs, at her workplace, he bumped into police officers who confiscated what they took to be burglary tools.

Stevens said he received several calls from George Tiaffay after his wife was slain.

Stevens has pleaded guilty to six charges, including first-degree murder, robbery and two counts each of burglary and conspiracy. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month, after Tiaffay's trial is complete.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker