Witness describes noises in killings

Greg Harman

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 10:37 a.m.

The weight of a neighbor's testimony Tuesday helped ensure that 23-year-old Ralph Goodman, a codefendant in the August slaying of two Henderson residents, will stand trial.

Goodman is one of three suspects in the stabbing and shooting deaths of David Bender, 21, and Steve Szany, 22. They were killed Aug. 22 in Szany's apartment at the Sunset Winds Apartments, on the corner of Sunset Road and Eiger Way.

The other suspects in the murders are Stephen Ciolino, 31, and Cynda Ann Wasso, 33.

At Tuesday's preliminary hearing for Goodman, Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr denied a defense motion for dismissal and scheduled Goodman to stand trial Oct. 10 in District Court.

"These are the things jury trials are made of," Burr said before ruling that the state's case against Goodman could proceed.

Though no eyewitnesses to the stabbing and shooting of Bender and Szany have come forward, a neighbor who called police on the morning of Aug. 22 testified to loud banging.

"I heard big banging, rolling around, tumbling, mumbled cries," the neighbor said. "Initially, I heard a big boom, which woke me up."

Though Goodman refused to testify, his version of that morning's events came out piecemeal at Tuesday's hearing from statements he had provided earlier.

Goodman claims that Ciolino killed Szany and Bender while Wasso waited in a car. Goodman claims that he also was a victim of the violence and that during the killings he feigned unconsciousness.

Henderson Police Investigator Todd Wellman testified that none of the weapons found at the crime scene have been linked to Goodman.

Deputy Special Public Defender Dayvid Figler, representing Goodman, argued that his client should not have to stand trial if there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

"He is, in fact, a witness in this case, not a defendant," Figler argued.

But Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger said that while there was no eyewitness to the crime there was an "ear witness" in the neighbor, who claimed that the commotion in the apartment continued even after Ciolino ran down the stairs.

"It was a bloodbath up in that apartment," Roger said, suggesting that the continued noises indicated that "Goodman was trying to hold off these two victims, perhaps even stabbing them.

"That is not a person who is merely a witness -- that's an accomplice."

Wasso of Las Vegas was booked into the Henderson jail Sept. 12 on two counts of murder. Ciolino was arrested by Mexican police on a warrant and was extradited to Nevada, where he is being held in the Henderson jail also on two counts of murder.