DeChant begins trial in murder of boyfriend

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1998 | 10:53 a.m.

Bits and pieces of evidence ultimately point to Amy DeChant as the killer of her bookmaker boyfriend Bruce Weinstein, a prosecutor said Monday as the woman's trial finally began more than two years after the slaying.

Deputy District Attorney David Roger scoffed at DeChant's claim to police that vindictive "New York-looking type guys" were the ones who killed the wealthy, 300-pound man and buried him in a shallow grave in the desert.

Defense attorney Dan Albregts told the jury Monday that DeChant is innocent. He said that when she cleaned the bloody murder scene and misled Weinstein's family and friends, it was to preserve her own life and the life of her boyfriend's teenage daughter.

Albregts said one of the stocking-masked killers had yanked her from a shower and tied her up, explaining they were there "to teach Bruce a lesson."

DeChant heard "loud, angry voices" and then a series of shots, the attorney said. She was told to cover up the murder scene while they disposed of the body or face death herself.

"She didn't know where to turn," Albregts continued. "She felt like she was in a box canyon."

But Roger said the evidence will show the murder simply was about money.

He portrayed the 50-year-old defendant during opening arguments as a gold digger who decided to take the cash on hand and flee when her attempts to have him buy property and businesses in her name failed.

The prosecutor said there was plenty of cash available because Weinstein owned and managed an illegal bookmaking business operating nationwide from a bank of phones that were moved from one location to another to avoid the scrutiny of authorities.

He was known to stash money under the carpets of his home, and the corners of the carpets were loose when police finally searched Weinstein's posh 4,000-square-foot house in southwest Las Vegas, Roger said.

Albregts countered that "if she wanted Bruce's money, it didn't make sense to kill him."

"She lost everything," he said, noting that DeChant had built a successful carpet-cleaning business and purchased several rental properties over the years but had to sell them as she sought refuge on the East Coast.

DeChant quickly became a police target, but it took more than a year for authorities to amass enough evidence to obtain a grand jury's indictment. This was despite the fact that she had been arrested three weeks after the murder by Maryland police who found more than $100,000 in her car.

Roger said Weinstein's family and friends never bought DeChant's story that he simply was away from home because the cellular telephone that was his link to his bookmaking business remained in the house, as did his beeper and an American Express card.

"He never left home without it," the prosecutor said.

The family, in fact, hired private investigator Mike Wysocki to help solve the mystery of Weinstein's disappearance, and he is expected to be a key witness in the trial.

Albregts' version of DeChant was that of "a loving significant other" who had plans to marry the burly 46-year-old bookie.

While he conceded that DeChant was the logical target for Metro Police homicide detectives because she was in the home when Weinstein was killed, Albregts said their case was "fueled by innuendo, rumor and supposition."

He called investigators "tunnel-visioned" and told the jury in District Judge John McGroarty's courtroom that the evidence "supports Amy's account as much or more than the prosecutor's version."

Nearly lost in the battle of opening statements was DeChant's co-defendant, Robert Wayne Jones, 59, who Roger has said was her accomplice and the one who supplied the .380 semi-automatic pistol used to kill Weinstein on July 5, 1996.

Jones had been an employee of DeChant's carpet-cleaning business who helped his employer remove spots from the carpet in Weinstein's home the day after the murder. However, Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld said he had no idea what the spots were.

Weinstein's body was found by a pair of rabbit hunters on Aug. 11 near Mesquite -- the second dead body they found that day, Roger said.

A year after the murder, a pistol traced to Jones was found hidden under a bush, but Roger said it was too rusty to positively match it as the gun used to kill Weinstein.

Still, Metro firearms expert Richard Good determined that it was the same make and caliber as the murder weapon.

Roger said that Jones, like DeChant, left Las Vegas after the murder with a pocketful of cash and avoided apprehension for months.

Finally, an indictment was handed down in September 1997, and Jones was arrested in New Mexico a month later. DeChant was tracked down in January in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Roger said she was using the name "Sandy" and had a passport in another name.

Albregts said DeChant "fled out of fear."

"She had told police everything, and they called her a liar," he said. "She asked for protection, and they gave her nothing."