Wife: If Vigoa is guilty, he should get death penalty

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

The wife of a Las Vegas man accused of killing two armored truck guards last year and robbing a series of casinos believes he should get the death penalty if he's guilty.

But, Luisa Vigoa told grand jurors last month, she doesn't believe prosecutors have proven their case against her husband, Jose Vigoa, 41.

Vigoa also said her husband has an alibi for the time he is accused of robbing the Bellagio hotel-casino.

Luisa Vigoa, 41, spent more than two hours testifying before a grand jury on June 19. On Monday a 93-page transcript of that proceeding was released.

Prosecutors believe Jose Vigoa, 40, and two of his brothers-in-law are responsible for seven casino heists and the slaying of two armored truck guards in Henderson.

Vigoa has been charged with four of the robberies and the armored car slayings, but his brothers-in-law have been charged with only one casino robbery each.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger has said he hopes the grand jury will allow him to pursue additional charges against Vigoa and his brothers-in-law, Pedro Duarte and Luis Suarez, both 37.

A fourth man, Oscar Cisneros, 23, also was arrested in connection with one of the casino heists, but he hanged himself in the Clark County Detention Center in October.

Vigoa was arrested in June 2000, a few days after the Bellagio hotel-casino was robbed of $188,000. According to authorities, his federal parole officer recognized him on a surveillance tape taken during the robbery.

Luisa Vigoa, whose sisters are romantically involved with Duarte and Suarez, was the first person to testify before the grand jury. She was followed by her sisters, and her teenaged daughters testified Tuesday.

According to the transcript, Luisa Vigoa told Roger she believes anyone who takes a life should receive the death penalty, even if it is her husband.

"If he did it he should pay for it because myself and my daughters have been exposed to too many things, and he should pay for it if he did it. If he did it," Luisa Vigoa said.

"What have you been exposed to?" Roger said.

"The embarrassment of my daughters' names on television, the embarrassment of the people at work -- even though I didn't know anything, they don't know I didn't know anything. A lot of things. If he did it, he should pay, and it's the death penalty, then let it be the death penalty," Luisa Vigoa said.

Luisa Vigoa said, however, that her husband couldn't have participated in at least one of the robberies in which he has been accused. The Bellagio was robbed on June 3, 2000, but her husband was with the rest of their family celebrating a birthday, she said.

The majority of her family were at the party, which started at midnight June 3 and ended about 8:30 a.m., Luisa Vigoa said.

Luisa Vigoa said she never told anyone her husband had an alibi because no one ever asked her.

Luisa Vigoa, a maid who makes $20,000 a year, also sought during the hearing to explain away much of what prosecutors believe is damaging evidence.

It was Cisneros who bought the $165,000 house she and her family was living in, and it was Cisneros who owned the $29,000 SUV she drove, Luisa Vigoa said.

He was such a good friend, Luisa Vigoa said, he allowed her to pay rent and drive his truck.

Luisa Vigoa also said she doesn't know how the $100,000 police seized from her home ended up in her closet.

And though many witnesses identified Vigoa as a suspect in multiple heists because of a limp, Luisa Vigoa said she's never seen him limp in 20 years of marriage.

The release of the transcript coincided with Luisa Vigoa and her sisters seeking out the media to complain about the treatment of their husbands in the Clark County Detention Center.

In an interview with the Sun, the sisters alleged their husbands are being subjected to extreme security measures without cause and their defense attorneys have done little to help them.

Because of rumors of a potential break-out, the men frequently make their court appearances via a video conferencing system. When they appear in Clark County District Court, they are accompanied by a contingent of Metro SWAT officers and kept separate from other inmates.

Their husbands also are locked in their cells 23 hours a day, the women said. The men's one hour out each day is usually at 2 or 3 a.m., so they don't normally get to call them.

The only people who could possibly want to break the men out of jail are their wives, and the idea of that happening is laughable, Duarte's wife, Vilma Farray, 34, said.

Not even Zane Floyd, who is on death row for shooting four people to death at a local grocery store, merited such security measures, she said.

"They are torturing them mentally," Vilma Farray said. "That guy that did the shooting at Albertson's? He was upstairs in general population."

Clark County Detention Center Capt. Henry Hoogland said the men are being treated differently than most inmates, but the extra security precautions are needed.

"We don't want to frivolously expend our resources. We only expend them because we believe we have cause for concern," Hoogland said, declining to elaborate.

The women are subjected to pat-down searches, Hoogland said, because his officers are well aware of a breakout from the North Las Vegas jail that occurred almost two years ago. In that case, the wife of an inmate used some sort of a tool to remove the barrier between her and her husband, allowing him to escape.

Timothy Blackburn killed himself, his wife and two small children in August 1999 three weeks after he escaped from the jail where he had been awaiting trial on robbery charges.

Hoogland said he was unaware of the women's allegation that Luis Suarez was beaten by corrections officers a few weeks ago.

Luis Suarez's attorney, Peter Christiansen, said he has been told his client was "taken to the ground" by officers who thought he was trying to communicate to Vigoa in some way.

Christiansen said he understands the women's frustration at the security measures being taken.

Christiansen and Duarte's attorney, Michael Cristalli, said that despite the women's belief they have done little to aid their husbands, they have been busy wading through at least a half-dozen boxes of evidence compiled so far by police and prosecutors.