Sentencing set in murder of 2 women

Bill Gang

Thursday, March 7, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A 30-year-old Las Vegas man has been convicted of the purported revenge slaying of two women, whose bodies were found stuffed in a closet.

A penalty hearing is scheduled for Monday in District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni's courtroom to determine if Michael Rippo should die by lethal injection for the 1992 double murder.

Denise Lizzi, 25, and Lauri Jacobson, 27, were strangled in Jacobson's home at the Katie Arms Apartments, 3890 Cambridge St. Their bodies were discovered two days later.

The jury, which convicted Rippo Wednesday after a trial that spanned more than a month, has the option of sentencing him to life prison terms with or without the possibility of parole.

The key witness in the trial was Rippo's girlfriend, Diana Hunt, who admitted breaking a beer bottle over Jacobson's head while Rippo shocked both women with a stun gun.

Hunt testified that she initially believed the intent was to rob the women but learned that Rippo intended revenge over a soured drug deal.

Deputy District Attorneys Dan Seaton and Mel Harmon also presented a series of jail-house informants to testify that Rippo had confessed the murders to them.