Three to stand trial in du Pont killing

A man who married into the du Pont fortune, estimated to be worth $10 billion, will stand trial in U.S. District Court Nov. 30 for allegedly hiring the killing of his stepson's girlfriend.

Two people charged with being co-conspirators in the murder-for-hire plot are scheduled for trial on the same day.

The trio pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Friday morning before U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt.

Christopher Moseley, 58, a former du Pont gardener, is alleged to have hired Diana Hironaga, 40, and Ricardo Murillo, 37, to kill Patricia Margello, 46.

Margello had been dating Moseley's stepson, Dean MacGuigan, the son of Lisa Dean Moseley, a direct descendant of the founder of the DuPont Co.

Margello was beaten and strangled on Aug. 2 and her body was stuffed into an air conditioning vent at a downtown Las Vegas motel.

Moseley and Murillo are being held at the North Las Vegas Detention Center without bond.

A hearing to decide whether bond will be set for Hironaga was continued until Tuesday.

Murillo is alleged to have carried out the murder.

At Friday's hearing, Murillo's attorney, Art Allen, requested that his client be "placed where he can't be harassed by by either of the co-defendants."

State murder charges against Murillo and Hironaga were dropped Thursday at the request of county prosecutors because of the federal indictments, which allege a conspiracy using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a contract murder.

Dean MacGuigan had come to Las Vegas apparently to get a divorce from his estranged wife. Metro Police said MacGuigan provided key information about who his girlfriend was with before she disappeared.

Moseley is alleged to have called Hironaga in July and asked her to kill Margello, according to a complaint filed in a Delaware federal court. The interstate call put the case into federal jurisdiction.

Hironaga, Murillo and Joseph Balignasa are charged with luring Margello to the motel where she was beaten and strangled, stuffed into a plastic bag and hidden in the air conditioning vent. Her body wasn't found for more than two days.

Balignasa was not named in the federal indictment, but still faces state charges. A preliminary hearing for him is set for December.

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