Grand jury to assist in homicide case

Kim Smith

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

Prosecutors seeking the death penalty for a Las Vegas man accused of killing his brother-in-law have enlisted the help of a grand jury in the hopes of revealing an accomplice or accomplices.

At the top of the suspect list is the victim's wife, Susanne Carno, who has denied any involvement in her husband's January death.

"We can confirm that the grand jury is meeting on that case and that (Carno) is a focus," Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens said.

Owens declined to comment further.

Carno's husband of four years, Richard Carno, was found dead Jan. 31 and Susanne Carno's brother, John Brian Ray, was arrested and charged with open murder in the case.

Carno's body was found inside his car outside the Comstock Trailer Park on Las Vegas Boulevard North one day after his wife reported him missing when he didn't show up for work.

A black plastic trash bag with slits for eye holes, duct tape and rope were found lying across Carno's chest. An autopsy revealed Richard Carno, 36, died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation or suffocation.

A Metro homicide detective said he believed Carno was killed late in the afternoon the day he disappeared, and a handful of witnesses testified they saw Ray or a man matching his description with Carno or his car around that time at the trailer park.

James Walsh, a Comstock Trailer Park resident, told authorities that Ray, 36, told him in December he was going to receive $50,000 from Susanne Carno for killing Richard Carno.

Metro homicide Lt. Tom Monahan would not comment specifically on Susanne Carno's suspected role in the case.

"Whenever there is a murder, we try not to be myopic," Monahan said. "We look at all of the possibilities and in this case one of the possibilities is that someone else may be involved."

Although the grand jury did not begin investigating the case until last week, Monahan said his detectives never stopped working on it.

"While it might be an old case, it's not a cold case," Monahan said.

During Ray's preliminary hearing in April, Susanne acknowledged that she is a suspect in the case.

She and her husband had taken out $500,000 life insurance policies on each other five months before the slaying, she said. Less expensive policies would not pay off their home, she explained.

Susanne Carno's attorney, Lamond Mills, declined to comment Wednesday.

While grand juries are traditionally convened to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to try someone for a crime, they can sometimes be used as an investigative tool.

If prosecutors believe the grand jury has uncovered enough evidence to obtain an indictment, they present that evidence to a second grand jury.

In June 2001, a Clark County grand jury investigated a double homicide at the Ross Dress-For-Less store in Henderson and a string of hotel-casino robberies.

At the time, Henderson resident Jose Vigoa was the only person charged with murder in the case and Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger said he hoped to tie Luis Suarez, 36, and Pedro Rafael Duarte, 37, to the slayings and some of the robberies.

No additional charges were ever brought against the men as a result of the special grand jury sessions. Duarte and Suarez still only face charges in connection with one casino heist each.

Vigoa received four no-parole life terms plus an additional 760 years in prison last month for the slayings and four casino robberies.