Man, 72, convicted of seeking to hire a hitman to kill his wife

Kim Smith

Monday, Jan. 21, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

A 72-year-old Las Vegas man faces up to 27 years in prison next month after being convicted Friday of trying to hire someone to kill his wife.

Morris Wade was convicted of solicitation to commit murder and coercion with use of a deadly weapon after a weeklong trial in District Court. He was found not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and aiming a firearm at a human being.

District Judge Michael Douglas will sentence Wade Feb. 24.

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 money for a hitman.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall told jurors during opening statements 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 alleged, 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's attorney, John Lukens, argued 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.