Monday, June 24, 2002 | 11:29 a.m.
Jose Vigoa doesn't want to die.
That's why he pleaded guilty this morning to all 46 counts against him, including first-degree murder and armed robbery, Deputy Public Defender Drew Christensen said.
In exchange, prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty against Vigoa, who is now expected to get a prison sentence of life without parole. Vigoa will get the maximum penalty for every count against him for the fatal robbery of two armored truck guards and four casino heists, Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger said.
"Jose Vigoa will not see the light of day ever," Roger said at a press conference following the plea agreement. He will be sentenced Aug. 12.
The father of Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, one of two men killed outside a Henderson store in a March 2000 robbery, was upset that Vigoa was given the choice of whether or not he would face the death penalty. His son didn't want to die either, Prestidge said outside District Court this morning.
"He didn't give my son that choice," Gary Prestidge said. "He didn't give Mr. (Richard) Sosa that choice. But now we have to give him that choice. It's not fair."
Vigoa walked away from a plea agreement Wednesday because his defense attorneys said they needed more time to go over the paperwork. His plea came as a surprise this morning during a hearing to determine whether the statement of a co-conspirator who killed himself in prison could be used in Vigoa's trial.
"I don't think we ever thought Jose Vigoa would enter a guilty plea," Roger said.
Prosecutors said they accepted the plea agreement because their case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence and they wanted to make sure that Vigoa stayed behind bars.
In addition to retracting the death penalty, prosecutors agreed not to pursue any further charges against Vigoa's family for perjury and have asked the federal government not to press charges against Vigoa or his wife for bankruptcy fraud. The U.S. attorney's office had been pursuing the fraud charges.
Vigoa also will not have to testify against his brothers-in-law, Pedro Duarte and Luis Suarez, who are co-defendants in the robbery charges. An affidavit filed this morning in connection with his guilty plea also cannot be used against Duarte and Suarez.
"He didn't want to implicate anyone else, but he was willing to do mea culpa," Christensen said, adding that Vigoa was very remorseful for his actions.
Vigoa was charged with robbing the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Desert Inn and Mandalay Bay between June 1998 and June 2000, as well as in the deaths of armored truck guards Sosa and Prestidge in a robbery in front of a Ross Dress for Less store in Henderson.
"He pleaded straight up to the charges because he didn't want to risk his family going to trial," Christensen said.
Vigoa also pleaded guilty to charges of an attempted escape two weeks ago. Clark County jail officials said Vigoa used a metal mirror frame to chisel a hole into his cell window. They theorized that Vigoa planned to drop from his cell to a jail sally port 30 feet below, then another 20 feet to the ground.
More than a dozen uniformed Metro Police and corrections officers flanked Vigoa during the hearing, partially in response to Vigoa's attempted escape. Anyone wanting to enter the courtroom had to go through two metal detectors and past three Metro officers armed with machine guns.
Vigoa, shackled in a blue jumpsuit with orange mitts on his hands, said little during the hearing beyond entering the pleas on all 46 counts.
Prestidge's father said he could accept the plea as long as District Judge Kathy Hardcastle sentences Vigoa to life without parole as outlined in the agreement.
"I'm just pleased that it's going to be over with," Prestidge said. "As long as he's never on the street again where he can harm someone else."
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