Not-guilty plea made in car-wash death

By Matt Pordum

Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

A 54-year-old real estate agent accused of killing his 78-year-old wife by running her over with his car pleaded not guilty Friday and had his bail set at $250,000.

Albert Cota is charged with murder. His preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 13 before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle.

Cota's attorney, Richard Schonfeld, said his client was being "overcharged" and at best the prosecution's evidence merits the charge of "voluntary manslaughter." Schonfeld said prosecutors informed him an accident re-constructionist has determined the victim was run over twice, but he hasn't seen the evidence to support the claim.

Schonfeld said although Cota would be able to post the bail, he believed $100,000 would have been a more reasonable bail amount considering his client has no previous criminal history and has lived in Las Vegas for 10 years.

Hiroko Cota's body was found Oct. 2 in a stall at the Sparkles self-serve car wash on Buffalo Drive near Flamingo Road. They had been married five years, according to police.

The police report regarding Albert Cota's arrest says that about 6:45 a.m. Saturday a witness at a nearby business saw a blue Toyota 4-Runner abruptly back out of the stall at the car wash and then saw it lurch forward.

After allegedly running over his wife at the car wash Cota allegedly abandoned his bloodied Toyota 4-Runner in North Las Vegas with the keys inside and went to meet his ex-wife at Starbucks.

Detectives arrested Cota a short time later.