Grand jury testimony reveals new details in woman’s slaying

In the summer of 2005, Sharon Causse met a widower named Thomas Randolph through the Internet dating site Match.com.

Their relationship was rocky from the beginning. He hated that she played video poker so much. She thought he paid too much for his medication.

They weren't a match made in heaven, but the couple married in Mexico in 2006 and renewed their vows in Las Vegas in 2007.

By May 2008, Sharon Causse Randolph, 57, was dead.

Randolph is now behind bars in Las Vegas. He was arrested on murder charges in Utah earlier this month and returned to Nevada this week. He's accused of hiring a hitman to kill Sharon and then double-crossing and killing the hitman.

New details of the slayings emerged in grand jury testimony released this week.

Witnesses testified in front of the grand jury in December and January. They said Randolph was the beneficiary of four life insurance policies on his wife, totaling more than $400,000. Witnesses also said Randolph and the man he is alleged to have hired to kill his wife, Michael James Miller, 38, were illegally selling prescription pills.

The grand jury didn't hear about one of Randolph's previous wives, Rebecca "Becky" Randolph, who died in the 1980s in Utah. Randolph was charged with murdering her and making it look like a suicide. A Utah jury acquitted him in the slaying.

Randolph has been married at least six times. Four of his wives have died, authorities said.

Metropolitan Police Department Detective Dean O'Kelley testified in December that on May 8, Sharon and Randolph were coming home after having dinner at the Charcoal Room steakhouse at Santa Fe Station. They arrived home near Anne Road and Jones Boulevard about 8:30 p.m.

While Randolph was parking their car, Sharon went inside. Police said she was then shot and killed by Miller, who was wearing a heavy hooded sweatshirt and had a ski mask with him. He was waiting for her inside a hallway bathroom, O'Kelley said. She was killed with a .38-caliber revolver that belonged to the Randolphs.

Randolph then entered the house. He said he squared off with Miller in a hallway of the house and fired at him with a 9 mm handgun he kept at the house, the detective said. Randolph said Miller then ran into the garage and Randolph chased him and shot him again, according to the transcripts.

But O'Kelley said the evidence at the scene didn't add up.

If Randolph shot Miller in the hallway like he claimed, the bullets would have hit the walls in the hallway when they passed through Miller. There also would have been blood in the hallway.

Instead, police found two bullets underneath Miller and two bullets under a vehicle in the garage. Most of the shell casings were inside the garage.

Police discovered Miller's body in the garage, with a gunshot wound that was fired through the top of his skull and out his neck.

"There is no point in time in the way that Mr. Randolph described that the round could have been fired," O'Kelley said.

O'Kelley also said a neighbor testified that he heard the gunshots about 8:30 that night. But Randolph didn't call 911 until about 8:45 p.m.

The grand jury didn't indict Randolph that day.

The jury foreman told prosecutors that they needed more evidence before they could indict Randolph on murder charges.

The grand jury convened again about three weeks later. This time, prosecutors brought Sharon's daughter Colleen Beyer and Miller's relatives to testify.

Beyer told the grand jury about her mother's sometimes difficult relationship with Randolph. Randolph left Sharon between five and 10 times over about three years. Each time he left, she would become hysterical. He would return with apologies.

Beyer said that on May 8, the day Sharon was killed, she talked to her mother about her relationship with Randolph.

Beyer testified that her mother was angry at Randolph. Sharon talked about divorcing Randolph because he was paying too much for medications and that he was having tax problems, according to the grand jury transcripts. Sharon, Beyer said, was livid and smoking furiously.

Several of Miller's relatives also testified. They told the jury that Miller came to Las Vegas from South Carolina or Florida and lived with his aunt and uncle in December 2007. Shortly after he arrived, he met Randolph.

Randolph called for Miller at his aunt and uncle's house up to five times a day.

Clifton Miller, Miller's cousin, told the grand jury that Miller met Thomas at a gas station. He said the pair sold Xanax, Lortabs and Oxycontin.

He also said Randolph and Miller went out into the desert to shoot guns. They never went to a shooting range.

At the end of the Jan. 6 hearing, the jury indicted Randolph on conspiracy to commit murder, murder and burglary with a deadly weapon charges.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.