Family name drove murder plot, jurors told

Bill Gang

Wednesday, May 5, 1999 | 9:52 a.m.

The murder at a Las Vegas porno motel was intended to eliminate the possibility of yet another social disgrace by a junior heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, a District Court jury was told.

During opening statements Tuesday in the murder trial of Joseph Balignasa, Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot said a few thousand dollars changed hands for what was apparently supposed to be a hired killing far from the du Pont family's East Coast stronghold.

The target was Patricia Margello, the 45-year-old part-time prostitute who was the object of Dean MacGuigan's affections and, potentially, his new wife. MacGuigan is the son of Lisa Dean Moseley, a direct descendant of the founder of the DuPont Co.

Balignasa is alleged to have helped two others murder Margello in a seedy downtown motel that specializes in porno television and three-hour rentals. The venture was said to have been orchestrated and funded by Delaware resident Christopher Moseley, Lisa Dean Moseley's husband for the last eight years.

Christopher Moseley and the two other defendants, Diana Hironaga, 40, and Ricardo "Rico" Murillo, 37, are facing murder-related charges in federal court because of the interstate aspects of the purported plot.

Balignasa's involvement, however, did not involve interstate activities and his case was left to the Clark County district attorney's office for prosecution.

If convicted of murder in District Judge John McGroarty's courtroom, Balignasa faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in a Nevada prison.

While MacGuigan testified Tuesday for the prosecution -- obviously bitter about the August 1998 death of the woman he called his "soul mate" -- he admitted he did not know Balignasa before charges were filed.

The key evidence against the defendant, Koot said, is contained in his confession to Metro Police homicide Detective David Mesinar detailing events at the Del Mar Motel, 1411 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

Koot said Balignasa admitted letting Murillo use his Calvin Klein belt to strangle the woman who had been living with MacGuigan for two years. The belt was secured around the victim's neck when her body was discovered.

Murillo and Balignasa also are captured on videotape at a nearby drug store buying garbage bags and tape that eventually were used to wrap the body before it was hidden in an air-conditioning vent in the motel room.

The murder plot, Koot said, crumbled in a series of blunders that led police first to Hironaga and then to the others.

"She is not the brightest thing that has walked the face of the earth," Koot told the jury. He explained that the woman rented the room in her own name and let Margello make telephone calls to MacGuigan shortly before the murder, indicating who she was with and complaining that she was afraid.

In his testimony, MacGuigan said he told his girlfriend to flee the room and take a taxi back to the Hilton hotel-casino where they were sharing a room. He said she assured him she would, but she never arrived.

MacGuigan said Hironaga later said she had dropped off Margello in front of the Hilton and expressed surprise at her absence.

A telephone call to Christopher Moseley resulted in assurances that Margello was fine, but no details of her whereabouts, MacGuigan said.

"I was freaking out," MacGuigan said. "There was something very wrong here."

He explained that a few days later he saw a television news broadcast about a body found at the Del Mar Motel and went to police.