Trial begins in killings of mother, girlfriend

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 | 8:30 a.m.

Opening arguments began Tuesday in the case of a Las Vegas man charged with the bludgeoning and stabbing death of his mother and the slaying of his girlfriend, who has been missing for two years.

Prosecutors allege Michael Messick killed his mother, Hisayo Miller, 51, in April 2001 and stuffed her body into a plastic storage bin at her condo in the 2100 block of Quarry Ridge Street near Sahara Avenue and Hualapai Way.

He also faces a second murder charge in the death of Anne Suazo, 50, who was last seen getting into her vehicle with Messick a week before Miller's death. Suazo's body was never found.

Chief Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neal laid out for jurors his case against Messick in District Judge Kathy Hardcastle's courtroom.

He said DNA evidence links Messick, 31, to both killings. Both victims' blood was found in Messick's car, he said.

O'Neal said Messick's nonchalant attitude when he discovered his mother was dead also points to his guilt.

"There was no reaction," O'Neal said. " 'Can I have a cigarette,' he says."

But Deputy Special Public Defender Brett Whipple said the state had no eyewitnesses to the killing and no fingerprint evidence.

Most importantly, he said, prosecutors have established no motive for the killings.

"There is no motive whatsoever for Mr. Messick to take the lives of the women that he loved, his girlfriend and his mother," Whipple told jurors.

Prosecutors say they have plenty of circumstantial evidence against Messick. The Rubbermaid tub that held Miller's body contained a knife and a pair of men's jeans in Messick's size, O'Neal said.

A plastic bag was over Miller's head and a bungee cord had been wrapped around her neck. An autopsy revealed she had been stabbed multiple times and beaten.

The killer had attempted to clean up the blood in the house with bleach, O'Neal said.

Messick, who worked as a pizza deliveryman, told police he last saw Suazo, his co-worker, when he dropped her off near Arizona Charlie's on Boulder Highway.

O'Neal said the answer to Sauzo's disappearance could be found in comments Messick allegedly made to friends in casual conversations.

O'Neal said Messick told friends on one occasion that there were "plenty of mine shafts" in Nevada to hide a body.

On another occasion, O'Neal said, Messick was watching a scene from a movie in which a character threw a knife at another character and the knife bounced off the person's chest.

"The defendant said, 'You'd have to stab someone a lot harder than that to kill them,' " O'Neal told jurors.

Whipple said Messick didn't say anything incriminating to police when he was questioned and that his odd behavior could be attributed to his aloof personality.

"(Messick) has always marched to the beat of his own drum," he said. "He has always been a little different than most people."

Whipple urged jurors to scrutinize the evidence, saying the evidence against his client was not "an open-and-shut case."