Trial begins for man accused of trying to hire hitman to kill wife

Kim Smith

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

Prosecutors say a 72-year-old Las Vegas man tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife because she turned him in after she wouldn't hire a hitman for him.

Jurors heard opening arguments Thursday in the strange case of Morris Wade, who has spent much of the last five years in and out of the hospital and a mental health facility. He is now facing five felony charges that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

Prosecutors allege Wade was angry with his neighbors in January 1996 and wanted to kill them. Because he was on house arrest, however, he was unable to go to the bank to obtain the money for a hitman.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall told jurors Thursday that Wade wanted his wife, Janice, to withdraw $5,000 from the bank for him so he could put out the hit.

When Janice Wade came home from work without the money, Wall said Morris Wade sat with a shotgun on his lap and threatened to "blow her brains out."

Janice Wade went to the authorities and Wade was arrested.

Six months later, Wall alleges, Wade asked a fellow Clark County Detention Center inmate for help in finding a hitman to kill his wife to prevent her from testifying against him.

Wade has made several threats, prosecutors say, including allegedly saying he would have the prosecutor in the case killed just like he had William Coulthard. Coulthard was a prominent Las Vegas attorney and former head of the area's FBI office before he was killed in a car bomb in 1972.

The case remains unsolved, and an FBI spokeswoman declined to say if Wade was ever considered a suspect. His attorney, John Lukens, said he has no information that would leave him to believe his client is a suspect.

Before the trial began, Lukens described his client as a "cantankerous" elderly man who is slightly mentally ill.

Lukens told jurors Thursday that Janice Wade profited from having her husband out of the way, and the jail inmate who set Wade up received a sweetheart deal from prosecutors.

Wade, Lukens said, is a "falsely accused man."