Vigoa hearing postponed

Kim Smith

Thursday, June 13, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Attorneys on both sides of the Jose Vigoa case this morning agreed to indefinitely postpone his preliminary hearing on attempted jail escape charges.

Prosecutor David Roger and public defender Howard Brooks said that with Vigoa going to trial July 8 on murder and casino robbery charges, they would rather focus on that case.

Justice of the Peace Pro Tem Melanie Tobiasson scheduled an Aug. 21 status hearing on the escape case during a brief hearing this morning.

Because of security concerns Vigoa, 42, made his court appearance via a video hook-up with the jail while strapped to a wheelchair, a common security precaution in high-risk cases.

Vigoa was charged last week with using a metal mirror frame to carve a hole in his cell window in what authorities believed was an attempt to escape.

The Cuban native has been in the Clark County Detention Center since June 2000.

Vigoa is charged with murder in the slayings of armored truck guards Richard Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, who were killed while being robbed outside the Ross Dress-for-Less store in Henderson.

Vigoa could receive the death penalty if convicted on the murder charges.

Police also believe Vigoa robbed the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Desert Inn and Mandalay Bay between June 1998 and June 2000 with the help of his two brothers-in-law and a fourth man.

Vigoa's brothers-in-law, Pedro Duarte and Luis Suarez, will be tried separately after Vigoa's trial. The fourth suspect, Oscar Sanchez Cisneros, killed himself in jail.