Jury continues deliberations in DeChant-Jones murder trial

Thursday, Oct. 29, 1998 | 12:06 p.m.

Jurors in the Amy DeChant and Robert Jones first degree murder trial resumed their efforts to find a verdict this morning.

District Judge John McGroarty ordered the panel, which has deliberated for two days, to return at 8:30 a.m.

The 50-year-old DeChamp and her co-defendant, Jones, 59, are accused of killing bookmaker Bruce Weinstein in July 1996 and dumping his body in the desert near Mesquite before fleeing the state with $135,000 of the dead man's money.

Jones had been an employee of DeChant's carpet-cleaning business.

Weinstein's body was found by a pair of rabbit hunters on Aug. 11.

A year after the murder, a pistol traced to Jones was found hidden under a bush, but Deputy District Attorney David 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.

Defense attorney Dan Albregts told the jury at the start of the trial 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.

Roger says DeChant is a gold digger who decided to take the cash on hand and flee when her attempts to have Weinstein 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.