Robbery suspect taunts arresting officer

Aaron Clemens

Wednesday, July 12, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

Jose Manuel Vigoa, 40, in a court hearing to determine whether he would stand trial in connection with a brazen daylight robbery last month at the Bellagio hotel-casino, used a break in testimony Tuesday to taunt a Metro Police detective who arrested him after a high-speed chase.

After Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis and attorneys for both sides left the room, Vigoa turned to Detective George Sherwood, made an obscene gesture and mouthed an epithet.

Lippis will decide Friday whether Vigoa and Oscar Sanchez Cisneros, 24, will go to trial in District Court on charges of robbery, attempted murder and kidnapping in the looting of the main cage and change booth at the Bellagio early June 3. Final arguments are set for 10 a.m. today.

Police also have identified Cisneros and Vigoa as suspects in armored truck robberies at the MGM, New York-New York, Mandalay Bay and Desert Inn hotel-casinos, as well as a fatal armored-truck robbery in Henderson.

Sherwood testified about the June 7 arrest of Vigoa on Sunset Road in Henderson after a high-speed chase on suburban streets.

Vigoa, Sherwood said, wrapped his 1991 Nissan Pathfinder around a tree and bailed out, leaving his wife and 12-year-old daughter behind. Sherwood caught up with Vigoa running through an apartment complex.

"He was on the ground struggling with three officers who were trying to cuff him," Sherwood said. "As we were walking him back, he started yelling 'I'm the man, I'm the (expletive) man. You can't touch me.' "

Sherwood identified a distinctive watch and a unique silver-tipped belt taken from Vigoa that day. He testified he saw the same items on a suspect in the videotape of the Bellagio robbery, which he called the best quality surveillance tape he has ever seen.

Immediately after Vigoa's arrest, FBI agents who had been tailing Cisneros moved in to question him. They informed him that Vigoa had just been arrested. With Cisneros' permission, eight FBI agents and Henderson Police officers searched his home at 6345 Cordell Drive, near Nellis Air Force Base, while two agents questioned him.

The search revealed sunglasses, hats and clothing matching those worn in the robbery as well as bags, pry bars, a bulletproof vest, five handguns and four automatic rifles and almost $25,000 in a secret compartment in the closet of the master bedroom, FBI Agent Richard Beasley said. Testimony on Monday identified many of those items as the types of items used in the Bellagio robbery.

Metro forensic expert Torrey Johnson testified he traced the purchase of a black .45-caliber Glock found at Cisneros' home by restoring the ground-off serial number. Ballistics tests showed the gun was fired during the Bellagio robbery, Johnson said. Sherwood identified the Glock as the same type of gun Vigoa is seen on the tape holding during the robbery.

Special Public Defender Phil Kohn objected that his client, who has a Spanish translator in court, did not have his rights explained in Spanish when he gave police permission to search his home. Cisneros was given his Miranda warning in Spanish after his arrest.

Lippis reviewed the transcript of the taped interview between Cisneros and FBI agents and heard the testimony of two agents who said Cisneros appeared to fully understand English. She decided that Cisneros showed a willingness to allow them to search.

Cisneros also appeared in court to understand some English. He laughed at a joke in English from a bailiff and listened intently as his attorneys talked privately at the defense table. He appeared to read exhibits written in English and write notes to his attorneys in English.

Kohn also argued that Cisneros was by far the largest man at a seven-man lineup Friday, leading witnesses to pick him by his size rather than by other distinguishing features. Lippis will wait to rule on the admissibility of the police lineup, saying she needs to examine the pictures of the men chosen to stand in the lineup with Cisneros.

A connection of the defendants to another armed robbery and double murder was introduced when Metro fingerprint examiner Joel Geller testified that six prints on a plastic bag covering a Russian-made AK47 assault rifle found at Cisneros' home matched Cisneros. The AK47 fires the same 7.62 caliber rounds that killed Armored Transport guards Richard Sosa and Gary Prestige II at a Ross Dress for Less store in Henderson on March 3.

Prestige shot one of the gunmen before he died, and Cisneros has a wound on his leg, Henderson Police officials have said. Ballistics tests that could link the AK47 to the killings have not been released, but Deputy District Attorney Frank Coumou confirmed that the DNA from blood found in the escape van used in the Ross robbery matches Cisneros.

Sherwood also found more than $100,000 and $250 in Bellagio dollar tokens at Vigoa's residence at 8952 Sandy Slate Way near Pebble Drive and Eastern Avenue, most of it in a floor safe in the master bedroom closet.

The arrest and search warrant for Vigoa, his property and vehicles were issued after his federal parole officer saw the surveillance tape on the television news and identified Vigoa as the man on the tape. Vigoa was on parole for a 1991 conviction of cocaine trafficking and two counts of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon.

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