Man gone for 2 years returns to plead guilty in Primm casino heist
At first, Dell Eugene Warfield Jr. didn’t recognize the voice on the other end of the phone.
“Who is this?”
“Your son.”
It had been almost two years to the day since the young man who shared his name made contact with family — two years since authorities said Dell Eugene Warfield III stole upwards of $160,000 from a vault at the William Hill Race & Sports Book at Primm Valley Resort and Casino where he worked.
And then disappeared.
One day in late January 2013, the younger Warfield sent a text message to his father, saying he “got caught up,” was on the run and “he will not be hearing from him again,” according to a police report.
On Wednesday, two weeks after he turned himself in to Metro, the 24-year-old Warfield agreed to plead guilty in Las Vegas Justice Court to two felony counts: theft and forgery. His father watched the court proceedings from the back row of the gallery.
Warfield III is expected to receive a sentence of two to five years in prison.
“That’s kind of good to hear,” his father said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
A few minutes after midnight on Jan. 27 2013, Warfield knelt down and punched in the correct code — he entered the wrong code twice — and popped open the sports book safe.
He exchanged $5,307 in cash he brought for 10 bundles of bills totalling $164,693, police said. The plastic-wrapped bundles Warfield carried to the casino that day were topped with $100 bills, but were filled out with singles.
Warfield apparently tried to cover his tracks at the casino — or at least buy himself a little time — but police quickly identified him as a suspect. After all, he was caught on surveillance video and changed from his work uniform into a sweatshirt and shorts before walking out, police said.
Authorities allege he forged the signatures of two other employees to make it appear as though someone else opened the safe and to create the illusion that the theft occurred before the phony cash drop.
Several hours after he snagged the loot, a tracking device had located his iPhone at a truck stop in northern Utah, but it was soon turned off.
The bundles of cash are apparently all gone.
Warfield, who had handled sports bets at the casino for about six months before the theft, told his father that he caught a Greyhound bus to Denver and then ended up in Seattle, where he slept on the streets. He couldn’t get a hotel or an apartment because he knew the warrant for his arrest might catch up with him.
He gambled some of the money away and a backpack, which contained $20,000, had been stolen, according to his father.
The elder Warfield wants his son to get help for his gambling problem.
After learning about what happened at the sports book, Warfield Jr. searched his son’s apartment. He said he found stacks of tickets for sports bets he knew his son could not afford.
Before that, the father said, he had no idea is son was caught up.
The first month without knowing the whereabouts of his only child was the roughest, he said. His son had never been in trouble before.
For a while, the elder Warfield who is a firefighter in Barstow, Calif., was too distraught to work, he said. He sought counseling and ultimately tried to keep his mind off what might have happened.
About six months ago, when the elder Warfield and his wife moved from Apple Valley, Calif. to Big Bear Lake, Calif., police showed up at his door. They were looking for his son. But he told them he had nothing to hide and had not heard from him since the heist.
“I was thinking the worst,” he said.
Then he got the call.
After two years, Warfield III’s conscience was weighing on him, according to his father. He picked up his son in Baker, Calif., and on Jan. 26 brought him to Las Vegas police.
They didn’t talk much about the theft during the ride — Warfield III was nervous about his future — and haven’t spoken about it since.
“He said he was just tired of looking over his shoulder.”
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
