Prosecutors want leniency in du Pont murder sentencing

Kim Smith

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 10:11 a.m.

Two of the main players in the du Pont murder case helped prosecutors so much they should receive less than the minimum sentence called for by statute.

So says a motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court by assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas O'Connell, Peter Ko and Matthew Parrella.

The testimony and evidence provided by Diana Hironaga in the murder trial of Ricardo Murillo "was particularly useful because the offense conduct was so bizarre it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to otherwise envision," the motion reads.

Christopher Moseley's testimony was helpful in that it corroborated much of what Hironaga testified to.

The motion filed Thursday is the beginning of the end of a bizarre case that started with the August 1998 death of Patricia Margello, 45, the fiancee of DuPont chemical company heir Dean MacGuigan.

According to court testimony, Moseley hired Hironaga, Murillo and Joseph Balignasa to murder Margello because he did not approve of her relationship with his stepson, MacGuigan.

Margello's body was found Aug. 5, 1998, in an air-conditioning vent at the Del Mar Motel on Las Vegas Boulevard. She had been strangled, tied up with coaxial cable and panty hose, wrapped in a sheet with a pillow over her face and then sheathed in plastic bags.

Hironaga, who had rented the room in her own name, ultimately implicated the rest of the group.

Hironaga and Moseley agreed to testify against Murillo in the hopes the government would recommend they get something other than life without the possibility of parole.

Murillo was convicted in November on federal murder-for-hire conspiracy charges, and Balignasa pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder charges in state court.

If U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush decides to depart from the federal sentencing guidelines as the prosecutors have recommended, he could, theoretically, give Hironaga and Moseley as lenient a sentence as probation.

That, however, is unlikely, and during a recent hearing, Quackenbush mused aloud whether their attorneys should ask for sentences based on their clients' life expectancies or if they should ask for similar sentences.

If the sentences are based on life expectancies, Moseley, at age 59, would serve much less time than Hironaga, 40. But, if they serve similar, lengthy sentences, Moseley would die in prison.

Moseley, Hironaga and Murillo are scheduled to be sentenced March 16. Balignasa is awaiting sentencing.