Wednesday, Nov. 12, 1997 | 3:31 a.m.
John Sipes, 37, also known as Vito Bruno, was taken into custody in Phoenix.
The murder of slot technician Larry Volk took a new twist last week when it was reported that David Lemons, who was acquitted in the Oct. 1, 1990, slaying four years ago, confessed in two letters to authorities. Volk was a key figure in a slot machine scam.
Lemons said he was paid $5,000 to carry out Volk's murder.
In his confession, Lemons implicated his former roommate, Sipes, and Soni Beckman in the slaying.
Murder warrants were issued, and Beckman, 52, was subsequently arrested in San Bernadino County, Calif.
Volk was killed with a single gunshot to the head. Authorities believe he was murdered to prevent his testimony in a cheating scandal at American Coin Companies, a gaming slot route company.
Before his murder, Volk told authorities he'd been ordered to program American Coin slot machines so they did not hit jackpots, cheating players out of millions of dollars.
Lemons, who is serving time at the Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean on an unrelated crime, wrote to the Nevada Attorney General's office in early September, saying he was confessing to Volk's murder, although he had been tried in the case and found innocent.
Two weeks later Lemons sent a note to the Nevada Department of Prisons, again confessing to Volk's murder.
Lemons, who was tried and acquitted of the Volk slaying in 1993, cannot be tried again for the crime.
Police who interviewed Lemons about the crime said he reported he had "found God and wanted to set things straight."
Lemons told police he and Sipes first tossed an explosive device in Volk's trailer home. The device exploded but Volk was on vacation in Hawaii at the time.
Two weeks later Lemons said he went to Volk's trailer and shot him in the head at close range as Volk worked on his car.
American Coin partners Frank Romano, Rudolph M. Lavecchia and Rudolph Lavecchia, paid $1 million in fines and surrendered their gaming licenses as part of a voluntary agreement with gaming officials. The move came after evidence was uncovered that more than 1,100 slot machines had been rigged not to pay out jackpots.
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