Metro seeking more charges for suspected casino robbers

Keith Paul

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

Metro Police detectives have turned over to prosecutors a 1,300-page case file detailing the violent actions of a robbery crew suspected in the Bellagio hotel-casino holdup and three other Strip casino heists.

The case file asks prosecutors for additional charges against two of the three men already charged in the Bellagio robbery. The report marks the culmination of months of investigation by robbery detectives into the series of armed holdups, said Lt. John Alamshaw of Metro's robbery unit.

Jose Vigoa and Oscar Cisneros Sanchez are linked to the September 1998 MGM and October 1999 Mandalay Bay robberies and the botched June 1999 Desert Inn holdup. Luis Suarez is accused in the Mandalay Bay robbery, Alamshaw said.

Sanchez hanged himself in his Clark County jail cell Oct. 7. Clark County medical examiners have ruled the death was a suicide.

Sanchez made a confession after his June arrest implicating himself, Vigoa and Suarez in a Henderson armored car robbery in March where two guards were gunned down, a source has previously told the Sun. No one has been charged in those homicides.

Prosecutor Frank Coumou said he and the other prosecutor in the case will review the file and most likely will take it to a grand jury to decide what charges should be filed.

Prosecutors are waiting for Henderson Police to submit a few reports before going forward with the case of the March 3 armored truck robbery outside the Ross Dress for Less in Henderson where two guards -- Richard Sosa, 47, and Gary Prestidge II, 23, were gunned down.

Alamshaw would not reveal details of the Strip robberies or the actions of the armed robbers accused of pulling off the jobs.

"We found evidence during search warrants and found evidence during the investigation that links these suspects to the crimes," he said.

Alamshaw did release one connection between two of the suspects. Apparently Suarez lives with the sister of Vigoa's wife.

All three also are suspects in the April New York-New York robbery, but Alamshaw said detectives have been unable to develop the evidence to link them to that crime.

Robbery detectives Bob Rogers and George Sherwood have been working exclusively on the holdup cases since the Bellagio robbery in June and put together the case with help from other detectives and agencies.

Vigoa will be back in court next week for another hearing in his case on the Bellagio robbery -- the only crime he has been charged with so far.

Metro homicide detectives investigated Sanchez's death and found no indications it was anything but a suicide, Lt. Wayne Petersen said.

Sanchez was held in protective custody, meaning he was locked in his cell 23 hours a day and had no contact with other inmates while in the jail, said Capt. Henry Hoogland of Metro's detention services.

Jail staff had no indication Sanchez had received any threats, he said.

Sanchez's attorney, special public defender Philip Kohn, said he had talked with detectives and jail staff and has no reason to question the outcome of the death investigation.