Jury hears one of murder defendant’s statements to police

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

The first of two recorded statements given to detectives by a man on trial for murder and robbery was played for jurors on Tuesday, but they were not allowed to watch a portion of one of the tapes in which police told Wolff that their investigation pointed to him as the killer.

Daniel Wolff, 35, is charged with the December 2001 murder of 40-year-old Richard Marotto.

District Judge John McGroarty determined that jurors would not get to watch Metro Detective James LaRochelle tell Wolff: "Our investigation clearly shows that you (Wolff) are the person responsible for Richard Marotto's death."

In his response to LaRochelle, Wolff said: "I wasn't the last person to see him (Marotto)."

McGroarty withheld that exchange because, he said, it was up to the jury and not LaRochelle to determine whether the evidence presented showed Wolff committed the murder.

In the portion of the tape the jury was allowed to watch, Wolff calmly recounted the events of the Dec. 13 evening, when he first met Marotto. Wolff said he arrived at the gay bar, the Eagle, where Marotto already was. He said he "wasn't really introduced to Marotto" until after Marotto gave him and other people a ride to a gay nightclub called Snick's Place.

Prosecutors allege that after the night of partying, Wolff went home with Marotto and used a slab of marble to bash Marotto's head, covered Marotto's head with a plastic bag, choked him with an extension cord and stabbed him several times before leaving Marotto under the covers of his bed, according to the police reports.

Prosecutors allege after the slaying, Wolff stole Marotto's jewelry, Nissan Ultima, luggage, writing desk and birth certificate, among other things. He later pawned the jewelry at four different pawn shops in Las Vegas, according to authorities.

Marotto was a successful businessman who owned hair salons in Miami and Dallas. He also was gay and HIV positive, according to prosecutors. Wolff, who is gay and HIV negative, told detectives during his statement that he had been unemployed for several months, but previously worked for a temp agency in the automobile auction industry.

Wolff said at Snick's everyone in the group began using the illegal club-drug GHB, which was supplied by Marotto. Additionally Wolff said the group was smoking methamphetamine.

Wolff said at Snick's he asked Marotto if he was single and if he had a boyfriend. He said Marotto was "okay --he gave me attention and was talking to me. He was attractive enough for a one-night stand."

Wolff then told the detectives he went to an adult video store with Marotto, where they each watched pornographic films in separate viewing booths. He said when his film was finished he went over to Marotto's booth to find him "fondling" another man.

"I thought he (Marotto) wanted to take me home and when I saw this I told him I was going home," Wolff said.

Wolff told the detectives he then took two buses to get home before noon and slept "well past sundown."

Wolff said other than exchanging phone numbers, which they wrote on each other's hands, nothing else was exchanged. Wolff said he thought of Marotto as just "a possible trick (and) that was it."

Before the jury ever entered the courtroom, however, tempers flared. At issue was whether Metro Police DNA analyst David Welch's testimony on Monday was "tainted by his involvement in a recent male-on-male sexual assault case."

Special Public Defender Bret Whipple successfully argued he should have the opportunity to question Welch about whether his opinions on how DNA samples are left during "male-on-male" sex were based on his experiences up until he examined DNA recovered from Marotto's murder or if a case he was involved with in June affected his testimony.

On Monday Welch testified while he had performed DNA analysis in some 50-to-100 cases involving heterosexual sex he had only one prior experience with "male-on-male" sex, which was the June case.

McGroarty ruled Whipple could explore the issue in a hearing outside of the presence of the jury. If it is determined Welch's testimony was influenced by the June case, the jury might hear more from Welch on the witness stand.

Monroe took exception to what she called Whipple's "back door" tactics to try to have the issue of Welch's testimony brought up.

While waiting for the jury to come in the courtroom, Monroe was still angry with Whipple, who told Monroe to "sing Kumbaya" to relax, but Monroe made it clear a line had been crossed.

"It's a war now," Monroe said. "We'll have a penalty phase if we get first-degree murder I can tell you that."

The inference being that there would be no negotiations regarding Wolff's sentencing.