Men identified in casino heist, transcript shows

Jace Radke

Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 10:26 a.m.

Oscar Sanchez Cisneros' brother identified Cisneros and Jose Vigoa as the two men seen in a videotape of a $188,000 casino heist, according to a grand jury transcript released Thursday.

Octavio Sanchez appeared before the grand jury in July and was questioned by prosecutors hoping to tie Cisneros, Vigoa, Pedro Duarte and Luis Suarez to a series of hotel-casino robberies and a Henderson double homicide.

Sanchez told the jury that his mother began to cry and that he couldn't believe what he was seeing as they watched the videotape of the June 3, 2000, robbery of the Bellagio when it was broadcast on the news four days later.

"At the beginning I didn't believe," Sanchez said. "I didn't think it was him, but then I continue watching, and I could see that it was him."

Sanchez went on to say that he recognized his brother and Vigoa robbing in the videotape, and that he had worked with the two men painting houses.

Police allege Vigoa, 41, began robbing hotel-casinos in June 1998 with the help of Suarez, 37, Duarte, 37, and Oscar Sanchez Cisneros, 23. Vigoa and Cisneros were arrested on June 7, 2000, and police suspected that they were tied to seven hotel-casino robberies and killing two armored truck guards in Henderson early last year.

Currently Suarez faces 14 charges for the Bellagio robbery and Duarte faces seven counts relating to a June 1999 Desert Inn robbery. Vigoa faces 46 counts in connection with four casino heists and the March 3, 2000 holdup and slaying of armed guards Richardo S. Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23.

Cisneros, who implicated himself and the others in several of the crimes, committed suicide in October in the Clark County Jail.

Cisneros' father also told the grand jury that he recognized one of the men in the Bellagio videotape as his son.

Vigoa's wife, Luisa Vigoa, 41, and his daughters Denia, 13, Dunia, 18, and Luisa, 12, were also questioned by Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger in front of the grand jury in July, and they all denied that Vigoa was shown in the robbery tape.