Marriage details emerge

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 | 9:18 a.m.

Trisha Miller said Alfred "Chip" Centofanti, a successful lawyer, and his beautiful young wife, Virginia "Gina" Eisenman, appeared to have the perfect marriage in early 2000.

The couple had a new home in Summerlin, drove luxury cars and had a baby boy. In fact, their life together seemed so ideal that Miller was often envious of Eisenman's good fortune.

"I guess I was just a little jealous of her," Miller said Monday, crying. "She had a husband and a nice house in Summerlin."

Miller had no idea that the seemingly perfect union was actually a turbulent one that would end in Eisenman's Dec. 20, 2000, death and Centofanti's trial on murder charges, which continues this week before District Judge Donald Mosley.

Eisenman's body was found in the family room of the couple's Summerlin home. An autopsy showed she had been shot seven times, including several "execution-style" shots to the head.

During Miller's testimony Monday, she offered jurors insight into the couple's stormy marriage.

Miller, who described herself as a close friend of Eisenman, said there were signs early on that Centofanti was a jealous husband who constantly worried that his wife was having an affair.

She said Centofanti would routinely interrupt her and Eisenman's lunch dates with calls to his wife's cell phone.

On one occasion, Miller said, Centofanti demanded that Miller get on the phone to confirm that Eisenman, 25, wasn't with another man.

In the months leading up to her death, Eisenman began considering filing for divorce. Around Thanksgiving, Eisenman said, she'd fallen out of love with her husband, Miller said.

"She wasn't attracted to him," Miller said. "She was going to leave him."

It wasn't until early December 2000, however, that Miller got a taste of the dysfunction that plagued the seemingly perfect relationship.

Miller said Eisenman called her from jail on Dec. 5, 2000, and told her she'd been arrested following a domestic dispute with her husband.

Eisenman said Centofanti had threatened to kill her and she'd hit him in the head with a picture frame.

"She told me that he put a gun to her head and told her he was going to kill her, the kids and kill himself," Miller said.

Centofanti called Miller the same evening, Miller said, and told her police arrested Eisenman after he told them that Eisenman had attacked him with the picture frame.

"He said, 'Who do you think they're going to believe, Trisha? I'm a lawyer. I'm a smart person.' "

Centofanti also admitted to going through his wife's cell phone and accused her of having an affair, Miller said.

"He wanted to know who Gina was sleeping with," she said. "He started naming off names. I assured him she wasn't."

Weeks before her death, Eisenman moved out of the home she shared with Centofanti and into an apartment on Eastern Avenue in Henderson, Miller said.

Miller said Eisenman got the apartment in her mother's name so that Centofanti would not know where she was living.

"She was scared," Miller said.