Defense: Toss wiretap in murder-for-hire case

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A defense lawyer told the Nevada Supreme Court Wednesday that information was withheld when Metro Police sought permission from a judge to eavesdrop on telephone conversations of Heath Illiescu, who was later charged with hiring a man to kill his business partner.

Dominic Gentile, attorney for Illiescu, urged the court to uphold District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski, who in a pretrial hearing suppressed the evidence from the wiretaps.

But Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neale argued that although the petition for the wiretap was not perfect, it was good enough to be admitted into evidence.

The court will rule later on the arguments.

Illiescu is charged with hiring Jason Paris of Chicago for $20,000 to shoot Bruce Ray Fisher, his business partner in Blue Chip Sports, a sports information betting service. The killing took place Dec. 14, 1997, in the parking lot of an apartment on East Warm Springs Road, according to court records.

The investigation into the slaying was at a standstill after about three months until two former employees of Illiescu came forward and told police Illiescu was involved. With that information, Detective David Mesinar sought and received permission for a wiretap from then District Judge Myron Leavitt, now on the Supreme Court but disqualified in this case.

Gentile said information about what steps were taken in the investigation and what should have been done were required to be disclosed to Leavitt to justify a wiretap. But those things were not revealed to the judge, Gentile said.

If they had, Gentile said he doubted Leavitt would have authorized the wiretap.

Normal investigative procedures were not done before the detective approached the judge for the wiretap, the defense lawyer said.

But O'Neale said detective Mesinar made a "good faith effort" to put everything needed on the petition for the wiretap. Even though Mesinar was a police officer for 27 years, this was only the second time he had submitted a petition for a wiretap.

The appeal also involved the effort of Gentile to stop the prosecution from using the testimony of Paris, the alleged hit man, and Henry Pawik, an accountant for Illiescu, who prosecutors say participated in hiring his friend Paris.

Gentile said police used "the fruits" of an illegal wiretap to question Paris and get him to admit his part in the crime. Paris and Pawik didn't know about the wiretaps when they were questioned.

During the wiretaps, police intercepted a call that identified Paris as the killer and arrested him. Paris told police that Fisher was blackmailing Illiescu for $200,000 a year to keep quiet about illegal sports betting. He has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and must spend at least 10 years in prison.

Pawik has pleaded guilty to a charge of solicitation to commit murder. Both Pawik and Paris have agreed to testify against Illiescu.