Attorney considers sentencing ‘harsh’ in casino holdup

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 10:20 a.m.

One of the men convicted in a casino heist in which two armored truck guards were shot was sentenced to prison Wednesday, but still faces a separate charge stemming from a fight with another inmate at the Clark County Detention Center.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle sentenced Pedro Duarte, 38, to 16 to 70 years in prison for his role in the attempted robbery of the Desert Inn in 1999.

One Brinks armored truck guard was shot in the arm and another was shot in the leg during the holdup.

Prosecutors claim Duarte drove the getaway car in the heist, which ended with Duarte's accomplices, who were also his brothers-in-law, Jose Vigoa and Oscar Cisneros, opening fire on the guards.

Luis Suarez, 38, who pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery in separate robbery at the Bellagio, was scheduled to be sentenced with Duarte. But that hearing was postponed because of a delay with a Department of Parole and Probation report.

Clark County prosecutor Pam Weckerly said the Desert Inn heist resulted from a carefully planned scheme and that all three men played "crucial roles" in the conspiracy.

"This was an ambush from the beginning," she said. "As attempt murder cases go, this is probably as violent as it gets."

While Duarte did not participate in the shooting, Weckerly said, his role as the getaway driver helped set the stage for the events that unfolded.

"It was Pedro Duarte's actions that made this all possible," she said. "It's just luck or accident that no one was killed."

Duarte had indicated through a Spanish-speaking interpreter that he wanted to address the court before the sentence was handed down. But after speaking briefly with his defense attorney, Michael Cristalli, he acknowledged that Cristalli would speak on his behalf.

Outside of court, Cristalli called the sentence "harsh."

Jurors had found Duarte guilty of seven felony counts, including attempted robbery, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit robbery and/or murder. But they had acquitted him on the deadly weapon enhancements charged by prosecutors.

Cristalli said the verdict showed that jurors believed Duarte wasn't responsible for the shooting. He said Duarte should have received a more lenient sentence as a result.

"It wasn't the defense who said that, it was the jury who said that," he said. "In my opinion, (Hardcastle) sentenced him as if he was convicted of the weapon enhancements."

Duarte still faces an additional charge of battery with a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm in an incident prosecutors say occurred while Duarte was in custody at the Clark County Detention Center.

Prosecutors say Duarte attacked another inmate with a telephone receiver. A preliminary hearing in that case was scheduled for this morning in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Cristalli called the charge "ridiculous."

He said the alleged victim was actually the aggressor, and that Duarte was defending himself. He said the other inmate was not severely injured and only received only "a stitch or two" after the altercation.

In the Desert Inn heist, prosecutors said Duarte waited in a stolen getaway vehicle while Vigoa and Cisneros engaged in a shootout with the armored truck guards in front of the hotel.

A water bottle with Duarte's DNA on it was found in the getaway vehicle, and Duarte's pickup truck was discovered in the parking lot of the nearby Vagabond Inn. Duarte's fingerprint was found on a fake license plate on that truck.

Cristalli said his client still maintains his innocence. Even if he was guilty of conspiring with the shooters, Cristalli said, there was "no way to forecast what was going to happen."

Cristalli said he plans to appeal the case.

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