Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 10 a.m.
In a case laced with melodrama, a 53-year-old Las Vegas man has been indicted on charges of trying to hire a hit man to kill his ex-wife.
Eugene William Thompson already is in custody and District Judge Myron Leavitt set bail at $200,000 bail pending arraignment on April 8 in District Court.
Metro Police became involved in the case when someone who knew Thompson tipped off detectives about his plan to kill the woman he was still paying alimony to, Deputy District Attorney Scott Mitchell said.
Mitchell added that the target also was involved in a Florida court case with her former husband.
In the murder-for-hire case, a Metro detective with a New York accent posed as a hitman and cut a deal with Thompson on Jan. 19 to do the job for $4,500, with $500 as a down payment, the charges allege.
The Los Angeles woman, who is a waitress at a soup restaurant, was then secretly taken to a motel near her home where detectives photographed her sprawled across a puddle of stage blood that had been poured on the floor. They also collected some of her personal items, the prosecutor said.
The items were given to Thompson in a Jan. 31 meeting at a restaurant and another $300 was collected, Mitchell said, recounting the testimony.
Thompson was arrested moments later by other officers waiting in the restaurant's parking lot.
The case had gone to a preliminary hearing in March, but Mitchell did not call the person who had contacted police and set the undercover operation in motion as a witness.
Mitchell said he was trying to protect the informant's identity out of concern for her safety.
But Thompson's attorney Chip Siegel asked Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle to dismiss the charges because, without the informant, there was no way to show the legally required predisposition to kill on the part of the defendant.
Oesterle was scheduled to rule on Siegel's motion Friday, but Mitchell said the secret grand jury session -- where the informant did testify -- and the resulting indictment makes it a moot issue.
While the indictment gives the informant some additional days of insulation, Mitchell conceded that her identity will become public when a transcript of the grand jury proceeding is completed.
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