Plea bargain talks fail for husband of du Pont family heiress

Monday, Oct. 4, 1999 | 4:39 a.m.

The husband of a du Pont family heiress is still scheduled for trial on conspiracy charges in a contract killing after attempts to reach a plea bargain failed Monday.

Attorneys for Christopher Moseley and federal prosecutors spent much of the day negotiating a possible plea, but were unable to reach agreement by a scheduled late afternoon appearance before U.S. District Judge Philip Pro.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom O'Connell said he could not comment on whether there would be further plea bargain negotiations.

Moseley, of Centerville, Del., is accused of conspiring to arrange the contract killing of his stepson's girlfriend at a Las Vegas motel.

Both he and co-defendant Ricardo Murillo are scheduled for trial Oct. 18, but since their cases were severed earlier, O'Connell said it will be up to Pro to decide this week which one will go to trial first.

A Las Vegas woman, Diana Hironga, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in May and agreed to testify for the government in the case. Another defendant, Joseph Balignasa of Las Vegas, went to trial in May, but a mistrial was declared.

Moseley was arrested at a golf course near Wilmington, Del., by FBI agents who say he confessed to conspiring in the death of Patricia Margello, 45. Her body was found Aug. 5, 1998, in an air conditioning duct at the Del Mar Motel, north of the Las Vegas Strip.

Police said Moseley did not approve of the relationship between Ms. Margello and his wife's son, Simpson Dean MacGuigan, 41. Authorities said Moseley hired two people to kill Ms. Margello when she and MacGuigan visited Nevada.

According to Hironaga's plea agreement, Moseley told her, Murillo and Balignasa in July 1998 to kill his stepson and Margello if they didn't get off drugs within six weeks. About two weeks later, however, she said Moseley offered them money to go ahead and kill Margello.

Hironaga confessed to luring Margello into meeting Balignasa and Murillo by saying they would be escorting two "high-rollers" around Las Vegas for money. The four of them checked into the Del Mar Motel. Margello was killed the next morning, the records say.

Court documents say Hironaga told detectives she notified Moseley that they had executed "Step Five" in their plan by telephone and fax machine on the morning of Aug. 2.

Hironaga said she and Murillo flew to Philadelphia Aug. 4 and were met at the airport by a limousine driver sent by Moseley. The driver, she said, gave her $15,000 and she gave $10,000 of it to Murillo.

Moseley's wife, Lisa Dean Moseley, 69, is a great granddaughter of former DuPont Co. President Lammot du Pont. She had offered to put up $4 million in bail to free her husband, but a federal magistrate in Delaware ordered that Moseley remain in custody and be sent to Nevada to face charges. He has been ordered held without bond here as well.

The victim remained unidentified for several weeks until MacGuigan went to police. He told police he and Ms. Margello had come to Las Vegas so MacGuigan could gain residency and file for divorce.