Former hostess to face trial in restaurant killing

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman accused of killing an Applebee's restaurant manager in a late-night robbery in August 2003 will face trial, Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr ruled Tuesday, but the prosecution appears to have a few problems with its case.

Burr found, after hearing from witnesses during a preliminary hearing, that there was enough probable cause to charge Elyse Palmer, 19, with murder and robbery charges in connection to the slaying of 45-year-old Thomas B. Farrell.

Prosecutors allege that Palmer, a former hostess at the restaurant, used her inside knowledge to carry out a fatal robbery of the restaurant Aug. 25, 2003. Farrell's dead body was found in the restaurant's kitchen nearby the ransacked safe, which would have had from $2,000 to $10,000 for the weekend's take and $1,500 in petty cash, Applebee's manager Jesus Gonzalez testified Tuesday.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Schwartz said prosecutors are considering seeking the death penalty in this case because of the robbery and other aggravating circumstances.

Only four to six days prior to the slaying, Gonzalez had fired Palmer for poor work performance, he testified. Gonzalez was the first to find Farrell's body when he arrived at work early that Monday morning to do inventory.

Farrell was shot twice and his throat was cut in several places, Lary Simms, a forensic pathologist with the Clark County coroner's office, said. Police found a knife by the body.

At Tuesday's hearing, however, prosecutors were only able to produce one witness to connect Palmer to the robbery.

Chanel Knox, who said she was an acquaintance of Palmer's until she pulled a gun on Knox in February 2004, testified that Palmer told her about the Applebee's robbery in late January or early February 2004.

Knox said Palmer told her that if you have someone on the inside of a small business or corporation, it's easy to bring someone in from the outside to rob the place. Palmer said she had done a similar job at an Applebee's and was suggesting that if they knew someone like that they could pull off another robbery, Knox testified.

"She said no one was supposed to get hurt and that she was the one who got her friends in," Knox said.

At first Knox said she didn't believe the story and disregarded it until a Henderson police detective interviewed her about Palmer.

A second witness, Jovan Young, invoked the right not to incriminate himself and refused to testify, his public defender said. Young, who is in custody on unrelated charges, previously had given a statement to police that Palmer had asked him to take part in the robbery and that he declined, Schwartz said.

There is a strong possibility that accomplices will be charged in connection with the slaying and robbery, but authorities do not currently view Young as a suspect, Schwartz said.

Henderson Police Detective Brian Flatt also testified that when he first arrested Palmer on a murder charge, she told him she knew important information about Farrell's murder and would tell him everything.

Palmer later refused to speak with police and was taken to the Henderson Detention Center, Flatt said. She was not read her Miranda rights until she was formerly detained, a fact that upset her special public defenders, Lee-Elizabeth McMahon and Alzora Jackson.

Flatt said he usually waits to read Miranda rights until he has suspects on tape, so everything is on the record. He never got to that point with Palmer, he said, even though he placed her in handcuffs at her Las Vegas apartment and discussed the basketball play-offs with her on the long drive back to the Henderson police department.

"It's inappropriate," McMahon said, adding that she would be reviewing the court record to see if the delay was a violation of her client's rights.

Thirteen days after Palmer's June 15 arrest, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "two-step" interrogations like the one Flatt said he used on Palmer are unconstitutional.

McMahon and Jackson said they were positive that the case against Palmer would not meet the proof beyond a reasonable doubt needed in a District Court trial.

Palmer remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.