Armored truck guard describes gunfight

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, July 23, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

When armored truck guard Charles Fichter pulled up to the Desert Inn in June 1999 for a routine delivery, two men in ski masks were lying in wait, prepared to ambush him with assault rifles.

Fichter had exited the Brinks truck and was securing the area so that his partner could deliver cash and coins to the casino when he heard yelling and commotion behind him.

"I turned to my right and I saw someone approaching me and firing at me," he said. "The person was totally dressed in black, ninja garb."

Fichter dropped to the ground and took cover near the front of the truck. When the shooter retreated, bullets began flying from another direction, one hitting him in the leg.

Fichter managed to fire about four shots in return before his partner, Donald Bowman, pulled him into the truck. Bowman was shot in the arm during the incident.

"It is a unique experience to actually see sparks coming from the end of a gun," Fichter said. "I was looking right down the barrel of a gun."

Fichter's testimony jump-started prosecutors' case against Pedro Duarte, whom authorities believe drove the getaway vehicle, a bronze SUV, in which the gunmen escaped.

Duarte, 38, faces seven felony counts, including attempted murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery charges in the heist.

Duarte, who is Cuban and speaks Spanish, listened to the testimony with the help of a court-appointed interpreter who fed the translation through a tiny microphone and into a headset Duarte wears.

In their opening statement, prosecutors laid out what they believe was a complex and carefully executed plan crafted by Duarte, and his brothers-in-law, Jose Vigoa, 42, and Oscar Cisneros, to rob the casino.

Prosecutors initially alleged Duarte conspired with Vigoa and Luis Suarez in several other casino heists, including the MGM Grand and the Mandalay Bay, between 1998 and 2000, and the robbery of a Ross Dress For Less in Henderson in which two armored truck guards were killed.

Conspiracy charges against Duarte in those cases were dropped.

Suarez, 38, is scheduled to stand trial at the conclusion of Duarte's trial, and Vigoa is serving multiple life sentences for a range of charges pertaining to the robberies. Cisneros committed suicide in prison in October 2000.

Though prosecutors contend that Vigoa and Cisneros were the shooters, the state's conspiracy laws allow Suarez to be charged with the same crimes for his alleged role.

Deputy District Attorney Pam Weckerly said the shooters wore ski masks, carried high-powered rifles and were protected with body armor during the Desert Inn heist.

"These men did not approach the robbery like amateurs," she said.

Witnesses are expected to testify that the men sped off from the Desert Inn in the SUV and headed toward the Vagabond Inn, Weckerly said.

Once in the parking lot of the Vagabond Inn, another witness will testify, he saw three men load several heavy bags into a red Nissan truck and screech out of the parking lot, leaving the bronze SUV behind, she said.

But despite careful planning, she said, the men made several mistakes in the robbery attempt.

A second truck left in the parking lot of the Vagabond Inn had fake plates on it and police learned it was registered to Duarte. Duarte's fingerprint was also on the plates.

Weckerly said there could be only two explanations for the two vehicles being left at the scene.

"Either they jumped in the wrong truck or they were prepared enough to have two vehicles at the scene," she said.

DNA evidence also links all three men to the scene of the crime, Weckerly said.

Ski masks containing Vigoa and Cisneros' DNA along with several guns were found in a secret compartment under a floorboard in Cisneros' closet when police searched his home, she said.

DNA evidence recovered from two water bottles that were found in the bushes linked Cisneros and Vigoa to the scene, and DNA from a third bottle, which was found in the bronze SUV, matched Duarte's, she said. But defense attorney Michael Cristalli downplayed the state's evidence against his client, which he claims is minimal.

"The state can't prove Mr. Duarte was involved," he said. "Mr. Duarte is on trial because he knows Mr. Vigoa and Mr. Cisneros and they had to put a third person there."

Cristalli said no witnesses place Duarte at the scene and DNA evidence found on the bottles doesn't prove anything.

"Big deal," he said of the water bottles. "I don't care about that. I don't care about Mr. Vigoa. I don't care about Mr. Cisneros."

Fichter said he and his partners had made cash pickups at about 10 Strip casinos before stopping at the Desert Inn.

While he could not pinpoint the amount of cash in the truck, he said it was more than usual because it was the end of the quarter, when casinos often make large deposits.

"I can say we had a lot of money," Fichter said. "We were doing fairly well."

Randy Easton, the driver of the truck, said he had pulled around to the south end of the property near the sports book about 9:30 a.m. when he heard Fichter yell, "robbery, robbery."

"Then bullets started hitting the truck, one after another," he said. "It was dozens. It was just pow, pow, pow, pow."

Easton, who remained in the truck during the shootout, said he could see only one gunman in the truck's rearview mirror.

He said he couldn't identify the man because he was covered "from head to toe" in black garb.

"All I could see were the two openings for eyes," he said. "All I could see were the whites of his eyes."