LV man accused of trying to hire hit man to kill wife

Bill Gang

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 9:09 a.m.

When a man under house arrest allegedly pushed a shotgun into his wife's face and demanded she get him $5,000, she chose instead to go to police.

Morris Wade went to jail and now, after a year and a half in custody, troubles have escalated for the 67-year-old Las Vegas man.

He was ordered Thursday to stand trial on charges he tried to hire a hit man for $15,000 to kill his wife over the shotgun incident.

But the "hit man" Morris Wade talked with through a glass partition at the Clark County Detention Center, according to Thursday's testimony in Justice Court, was an undercover Metro Police detective.

Wade knew it was his wife's complaints about having been threatened with a shotgun in January 1996 that has kept him in jail or at a mental facility for the past 18 months.

The woman, Janice Wade, testified he had threatened to "blow my brains out" if she didn't comply with his demand for $5,000 for an unspecified use.

Morris Wade was not able to leave his house because he already was in trouble with the law and confined under house arrest on a misdemeanor charge, according to Deputy District Attorney David Wall.

After the shotgun incident, Wade was sent to the state's mental facility at Lake's Crossing for several months for evaluation. He was returned to Las Vegas earlier this year after doctors determined he is now competent to stand trial on the charges of assault with a deadly weapon, aiming a firearm at a human being and coercion.

In the county jail in June, Wade is alleged to have asked a burglary suspect for help in finding someone to kill his wife.

The fellow prisoner testified that Wade explained that his wife was the only witness against him and he would be released if she were dead.

The prisoner, however, contacted prosecutors who arranged for Detective Steve Borden to pose as a paid killer.

Borden told Justice of the Peace Marley Robinson that Wade offered him $15,000 for the job, although most of it would have to be paid upon his release.

The detective said Wade indicated that some money could be obtained in advance from his sister in Virginia, and a couple of weeks after the meeting Wade received $3,500.

The money was seized by investigators.

While no final deal was struck for the woman's murder, the judge ruled there is sufficient evidence to hold Wade for trial on charges of solicitation to commit murder and attempting to dissuade a witness from testifying.

Wade will be arraigned Aug. 14 in District Judge Donald Mosley's courtroom.