Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The stage had been set by prosecutors to roll over Marlo Thomas at his murder trial in the stabbing deaths of two former co-workers at a Lone Star steakhouse.
Witnesses put him at the scene of the grisly slayings and he was arrested just hours later fleeing to the central Nevada town of Hawthorne.
There also is the videotaped confession from the 24-year-old defendant.
But the biggest boulder they were going to roll on top of Thomas -- the then-15-year-old boy who admitted accompanying him during the deadly spree -- won't be in court.
Despite the plea bargain that required Kenya Keita Hall to testify against Thomas, the young man stood up in court Monday and announced that he wouldn't be a prosecution witness.
Rather than face murder charges along with Thomas -- risking the possibility of a life prison term with no parole for 40 years -- Hall pleaded guilty to a robbery count and the promise of being a state witness.
But he now wants to withdraw his guilty plea and claims that if prosecutors demand that he testify, it would rob him of his rights against self incrimination.
Although District Judge Joseph Bonaventure conceded that Hall can't be forced to tell his story, he guaranteed the next best thing.
Hall did tell his story at a preliminary hearing for Thomas, and the judge ruled that the testimony naming Thomas as the instigator of the April 15, 1996, holdup and slaying can be read to the District Court jury impaneled late Monday.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Thomas, who is represented by deputy state public defenders Peter LaPorta and Lee Elizabeth McMahon.
During his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney David Roger said the day of the murder was "a dark day" for the two victims, but luck favored two others.
Roger said the incident began when Thomas and Hall went to the restaurant at Cheyenne Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard shortly before it opened and went in through the employee entrance.
They knocked on the manager's office and then pulled a pistol on Vincent Odo when he answered and ordered him to open the safe, the prosecutor told the jury.
The pistol, Roger said, was handed off to Hall with instructions to murder Odo once the safe was open, but that didn't happen.
At the same time, Thomas went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed Matthew Gianakis, 21, once in the back and then in the heart when he turned around, Roger said.
He managed to stagger to a nearby convenience store before collapsing. He died at University Medical Center three hours later.
The second kitchen worker, Carl Dixon, 23, was stabbed 19 times and there were 15 "defensive wounds" on his hands.
Roger alleged the murders were committed to prevent them from being witnesses.
One employee whose life was spared, however, escaped the carnage because he had worn inappropriate shoes to work and was sent home to change before his shift began. On his way out, he passed Thomas on his way in, Roger said.
Thomas and Hall were apprehended in Mineral County, 310 miles north of Las Vegas, just hours after the slayings. They had to be pursued for a mile, but offered no resistance once the vehicle was stopped, Mineral County officers said.
Although Thomas' girlfriend, Angela Colleen Love, 23, was the driver at the time and was originally alleged to have transported Thomas and Hall to the Lone Star, she was not charged.
District Attorney Stewart Bell has said that there was insufficient evidence to prove she knew the purpose of the trip to the Lone Star.
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