Grand jury to decide armored car case

Keith Paul

Friday, July 21, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

A Clark County grand jury will decide if suspects in a string of brazen casino robberies should also be charged with murder in the gunning down of two armored car guards, Henderson Police told the Sun Thursday.

Even if prosecutors didn't seek a grand jury indictment, police believe they have enough evidence to charge Jose Vigoa, 40, and Oscar Cisneros Sanchez, 23, with murder, Henderson Police Capt. Richard Perkins said.

"We believe we have the probable cause necessary to make the arrest today," Perkins said. "The decision to use the grand jury was made by the district attorney's office."

Clark County Deputy District Attorney Frank Coumou, the prosecutor in the case, said this morning that using a grand jury is a faster method of charging suspects. He said he hasn't ruled out just booking the pair and going through a preliminary hearing, but then added he will likely take the case to a grand jury in the next week or two.

Prosecutors and police have not been in a rush to charge Vigoa and Sanchez in connection with the March 3 killings of the armored car guards since the pair has been loaded down with charges in connection with a string of hotel-casino robberies. Vigoa and Sanchez are being held without bond in the Clark County jail.

The armored car heist that escalated into a shootout left Armored Transport of Nevada guards Richard F. Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, dead in the parking lot of a Henderson shopping center.

Vigoa and Sanchez have been suspects in the homicides since their June 7 arrest in connection with the $160,000 Bellagio hotel-casino robbery.

And the evidence linking them to the deadly robbery in front of the Ross Dress for Less store in the Whitney Ranch Center on Stephanie Street has been building since their arrest on other charges, police say.

Henderson Police confirmed the DNA testing of blood found in a getaway car used in the deadly armored car holdup determined it came from Sanchez. Police also have previously told the Sun that Sanchez had a bullet wound in his leg -- a wound that detectives suspect happened during the gun battle between Prestidge and the robbers.

Additionally, ballistic tests have determined assault rifle shell casings found at the Henderson scene match casings found in the botched June 1999 armored car robbery in the parking lot of the Desert Inn hotel-casino.

If prosecutors are successful in getting a murder indictment from a grand jury that would eliminate a preliminary hearing -- necessary if the police book the pair and charge them with murder.

Vigoa and Sanchez were bound over for trial on charges related to the Bellagio robbery last week after a preliminary hearing in Justice Court.

Vigoa and Sanchez also face a host of charges connected to armored car robberies outside the MGM Grand, Desert Inn and Mandalay Bay hotel-casinos and a holdup inside the New York-New York hotel-casino over the past two years.

In the Bellagio caper, three robbers were all armed and wearing body armor. As they were fleeing, two shots were fired at pursuing casino security guards. No one was injured. In the botched robbery at the Desert Inn, two armored car guards were hit by bullets fired from an assault rifle.

Vigoa is suspected of leading the robbery crew. A third suspect in the Henderson slayings and the string of robberies has not been identified.

Vigoa was sentenced to 86 months in a federal prison for the conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, assault on a federal officer and several other drug-related convictions in 1991. He was released on Dec. 12, 1996, and returned to Las Vegas.

Vigoa is from Cuba and is believed to have come to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boat lift.

Sanchez, a native of Mexico, was cited in 1998 for soliciting for the purposes of prostitution and in 1995 for minor consumption of alcohol.