Sisters’ testimony contradicts that given by Vigoa’s wife

Kim Smith

Friday, Aug. 3, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

In June, Jose Vigoa's wife provided him an alibi for a $188,000 casino heist. A month later, her sisters apparently ruined it.

Luisa Vigoa, 41, appeared before a grand jury in June at the behest of prosecutors who are hoping to tie her husband and brothers-in-law to a series of hotel-casino heists and a Henderson double homicide.

Jose Vigoa was arrested June 7, 2000, just four days after the Bellagio hotel-casino was robbed of $188,000 during an early-morning heist. Luisa Vigoa told grand jurors, however, that her husband was at a family member's birthday party during the robbery.

The party, she said, started at midnight June 3 and lasted until 8:30 a.m. The robbery took place between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.

According to grand jury transcripts released Thursday, however, Luisa Vigoa's sisters -- the wives of Jose Vigoa's alleged accomplices -- gave conflicting testimony about the birthday party when they appeared before the grand jury in July.

Vilma Farray and Caridad Farray, who are married to Pedro Duarte and Luis Suarez, respectively, each gave different time frames for the party.

According to their testimony, the party started at least six hours after the Bellagio was robbed.

The two women also apparently ruined the alibi of Luis Suarez. Suarez, 37, told police he was in Florida during the Bellagio heist, but the Farray sisters both told grand jurors he was at the party.

Police allege Vigoa, 41, began robbing hotel-casinos in June 1998 with the help of Suarez, Duarte, 37, and Oscar Sanchez Cisneros.

By the time Vigoa and Cisneros, 23, were arrested in June 2000, police already had reason to believe they were tied to seven hotel-casino robberies. They were also suspected of killing two armored truck guards in Henderson three months earlier.

The two men were arrested when Vigoa's federal parole officer reportedly recognized him on a surveillance tape of the Bellagio robbery. Suarez was arrested almost four months later.

Prosecutors had to wait another year, however, before they had enough evidence to file additional charges in the case. Part of the problem, they said, is that Cisneros, who implicated himself and the others in several of the crimes, committed suicide in October in the Clark County Detention Center.

In June, however, prosecutors filed 29 additional charges against Vigoa and police arrested Duarte.

As of today, Suarez faces 14 charges for the Bellagio heist; Duarte faces seven counts pertaining to a June 1999 Desert Inn robbery in which two guards were shot, and Vigoa faces 46 counts pertaining to the double homicide and four casinos heists.

Vigoa was charged in connection with these robberies of hotel casinos: the MGM on Sept. 20, 1998, the Desert Inn on June 28, 1999, the Mandalay Bay on Oct. 11, 1999 and the Bellagio on June 3, 2000.

In addition, Vigoa was charged with robbery and murder in the holdup and slaying of armed guards Ricardo S. Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, on March 3, 2000.

According to court documents, prosecutors have DNA linking the men to some of the crimes, eyewitnesses who have identified the men and at least some of the weapons used in the crimes.

In addition, the prosecutors have noted a pattern of spending on high-priced items among the suspects after each robbery, despite their low incomes. Officers also found large amounts of cash on Vigoa and Cisneros when they were arrested.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, however, has been conducting special grand jury sessions in recent weeks in the hopes of getting all three men charged with the same crimes. He also hopes to obtain charges against them in connection with other hotel-casino heists.

So far, Vigoa is the only person charged in connection with the deaths of Sosa and Prestidge and with many of the hotel-casino robberies.

The wives of all three men have been called to testify before the grand jury, as have two of Vigoa's daughters and members of Cisneros' family.

One of the things Roger has learned through the grand jury proceedings is that while Suarez says he was also in Florida at the time of the Henderson double slaying, his wife and sisters-in-law say he was in Las Vegas.

The wives all made it clear they believe they and their husbands are being discriminated against because they are black Cubans.

In her grand jury appearance, Vilma Farray said one of the officers who searched her home spit in her shoe. She even demanded a DNA test be performed on the shoe, which she kept.

Vilma Farray also insisted that she and her family members live "normal" lives. Sometimes they had extra cash, but most of the time they just had enough to pay their bills, she said.