Suspect in casino heists could enter plea bargain

Kim Smith

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Jose Vigoa, the alleged mastermind behind a string of daring casino heists and a double homicide, is weighing a plea agreement that would save his life.

District Attorney Stewart Bell said this morning that Vigoa may sign an agreement during a specially scheduled hearing Wednesday before District Judge Mark Gibbons.

"There is a possibility we could get this resolved," Bell said. "With a guy like Vigoa, we won't know until he signs on the dotted line."

Vigoa, 42, is scheduled to go to trial July 8 on 46 counts stemming from the March 2000 shooting deaths of two armored truck guards in Henderson and robberies at the MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Bellagio and Desert Inn.

If convicted in the slayings of Richard Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, Vigoa could receive the death penalty.

Bell said if an agreement is made, Vigoa would likely get a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

"With someone as dangerous as Vigoa, we would never offer something where there would be the feasibility of his being free in society," Bell said.

News of the potential plea agreement comes just two weeks after Vigoa was charged in connection with an alleged jail escape attempt.

Jail officials said Vigoa used a metal mirror frame to chisel a hole into his cell window. They theorized that Vigoa intended to drop from his cell to a jail sally port 30 feet below, then another 20 feet to the ground.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger had also recently asked District Judge Kathy Hardcastle to allow into evidence a statement made by Oscar Sanchez Cisneros that implicated Vigoa in all of the crimes.

Cisneros, 23, committed suicide in the Clark County Detention Center four months after he and Vigoa were arrested in connection with the Bellagio heist, which netted almost $200,000 in June 2000.

Vigoa's brothers-in-law, Pedro Duarte and Luis Suarez, are awaiting trial on robbery charges as well. Duarte is suspected of assisting Vigoa in the Desert Inn robbery while Suarez is accused of helping Vigoa in the Bellagio robbery.

Although police were never able to link Duarte and Suarez to the slayings of Sosa and Prestidge, prosecutors have said they have evidence linking Vigoa and his brothers-in-law to the casino robberies aside from Cisneros' statement.

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