Wife won’t testify against husband in killing of prostitute

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

The wife of a man charged with murder in the bizarre slaying of a prostitute in the couple's home has refused to testify against her husband.

But Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti ruled at a preliminary hearing Monday that there still was sufficient evidence to hold Ronald Collins for trial in District Court. Arraignment is set for Feb. 29 before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Before Monday's hearing began, Melanie Collins' attorney, Charles Waterman, said she would be invoking her spousal privilege not to testify, but much of her story still came out.

Togliatti ruled that police officers who interviewed the woman could testify about her observations and descriptions of the scene, although they could not talk about what her husband had said.

The officers testified that the woman told them she came home about 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 11 -- after having been gone for several hours because of a domestic dispute -- and walked into her dark kitchen to find a bloody body covered from the waist down with a blanket.

Metro homicide detectives testified that she said she believed it was her husband and screamed his name, only to see him emerge from beneath the blanket. Both the victim and Ronald Collins were naked and covered with blood.

Dr. Larry Simms, a deputy medical examiner, testified that 37-year-old Agnes K. Ready suffered numerous cuts and stab wounds and died from a slashed throat. Simms said some of the cuts were on the victim's hands and were considered "defensive wounds."

Collins, 30, suffered a cut on the back of his head, although it was not explained at the hearing how that had occurred.

Ready had a history of prostitution arrests in the downtown area since May 1998.

The domestic dispute at the couple's townhouse in the 4000 block of Castle Cove Drive is said to have begun when Ronald Collins came home drunk, according to Metro Police.

Melanie Collins told police she left the home with her son to spend the night at her mother's house, fearing for her safety because of previous domestic violence, but returned in the early morning hours hoping he "maybe had slept it off."

When police responded to the home on Jan. 11, they found a large amount of blood in the kitchen around the body and blood on the driver's seat of Collins' pickup. Two hunting knives were lying on the floorboard.

Police arrested Collins after a four-hour standoff when SWAT officers found him hiding in an air conditioning duct in the attic. Collins is being held without bail.

Bill Gang covers district courts for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 455-4844 or by e-mail at gang@lasvegassun.com