Long-sought DeChant to stand trial

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 | 11:31 a.m.

Since her long-awaited arrest in January on murder charges in the death of Las Vegas bookmaker Bruce Weinstein, the blonde tint has gone from Amy DeChant's hair along with some of the fire from her eyes.

A year ago she was a free-spirited bartender on Florida's west coast, but she had to spend her 50th birthday behind the bars of the Clark County Detention Center. There looms the possibility she could be spending every birthday from now on in a similar setting.

In court early this year, DeChant displayed a slight attitude -- pleading "not guilty" with a heavy emphasis on the "not" -- but a more sullen defendant was in court last week as attorneys on both sides confirmed they were ready for her trial.

Jury selection is set to begin Thursday in the trial for DeChant and co-defendant Robert Wayne Jones, 59. Opening statements and testimony will get under way Monday in District Judge John McGroarty's courtroom.

The pair could be sentenced to life with or without the possibility of parole, but prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

DeChant had shared Weinstein's southwest Las Vegas home for six months until he disappeared July 7, 1996. The remains of the 46-year-old bookmaker were discovered Aug. 11, 1996, in a shallow grave off the Old Alamo Highway about one-half mile west of State Route 168, north of Las Vegas.

Almost immediately, the investigation focused on DeChant, who operated a local carpet-cleaning business, and Jones, her employee.

Investigators have said they found blood stains in the freshly cleaned carpets of Weinstein's home after searching for clues to his disappearance.

Other sources point out that a rolled-up spare piece of carpet is believed to be missing from the garage of the home, and that DeChant changed her story about the events leading to Weinstein's disappearance before she and Jones disappeared.

DeChant actually had been arrested three weeks after Weinstein disappeared when police found more than $100,000 in cash, false birth certificates and wigs in her car.

DeChant spent nearly two months in the Harford County jail in Maryland, but was released Sept. 13, 1996, after her brother posted bail, which had been reduced to $5,000 from the original $2 million.

She was free for a year -- often living in Las Vegas -- until police and prosecutors gathered enough evidence for an indictment by a Clark County grand jury, but it took four months after that to track her down.

DeChant finally was arrested in January at a private residence in Port St. Lucie, Fla., on a tip from a person who saw her case profiled on "America's Most Wanted" television show.

She sometimes worked there as a bartender and is believed to have traveled back and forth to another residence in New Jersey.

Living in Las Vegas since 1992, DeChant liked playing in low-limit poker tournaments, and it was in the poker room at the Mirage in October 1995 that she met Weinstein. Within two months the two were living together.

The murder case languished for nearly a year after Weinstein's death as police pursued Jones as a "material witness" who they hoped would be their key.

Jones, 58, had disappeared July 12, 1996 -- five days after Weinstein -- and had traveled back and forth from Southern California to his house in Las Vegas.

He finally was apprehended on June 8, 1997, after police were tipped that he was at the Las Vegas home, although his stay behind bars proved to be temporary.

The pieces to the puzzle of Weinstein's murder didn't fall into place, and Jones was freed when charges weren't filed. He disappeared again.

But two months later, the case did come together, and DeChant and Jones were indicted. Jones was arrested a month later in New Mexico.

When police in Port St. Lucie followed the America's Most Wanted tip to the home of Joe Kosa, who runs a commercial cleaning service there, DeChant answered their knock on the door.

Apparently sleepy and wearing a bathrobe, she first identified herself as "Sandy," but a moment later acknowledged her true identity when police said they didn't believe her.