Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.
Nine years after the murder-for-hire slaying of a whistle-blowing computer programmer for a slot machine company, one of the people involved is finally going to prison while another will be on probation for five years.
The actual killer, however, remains on the streets a free man.
District Judge Joseph Bonaventure today sentenced 40-year-old Vito Bruno to 10 years in prison for his role in arranging the murder of Larry Volk shortly after the computer expert told authorities he had rigged slot machines at the direction of his bosses at American Coin Co.
Bruno, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder, already has spent nearly two years in jail awaiting trial and will be eligible for parole after serving another two years in prison.
His aunt, Soni Beckman, 57, was given probation, ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and fined $5,000 on her guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Bonaventure noted her lack of criminal history and a psychiatrist's report concluding she is not a danger to the community.
The defendants had pleaded guilty in September rather than stand trial on murder charges that could have put them in prison for the rest of their lives.
The admitted killer, David Lemons, had named the pair as those who hired him and helped him murder Volk, who was going to be the star witness in the slot-fixing case against the American Coin owners.
Bruno, in his guilty plea, admitted he hired Lemons for $5,000 to commit the Oct. 1, 1990, murder and provided a weapon and a vehicle to facilitate the execution.
Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson said today that Volk "was murdered because he tried to do the right thing."
The veteran prosecutor commented that this was the first murder case he prosecuted where he had actually met the victim -- whose home had been the target of a bombing just weeks before the slaying.
In arguing for the maximum sentence of 16 years, Jorgenson noted that Bruno had been convicted of a felony before the murder and committed another felony after.
"He deserves to go to prison," Jorgenson said.
Deputy Special Public Defender Daren Richards agreed, but said the sentence should be no more than six years -- which would have made Bruno immediately eligible for parole.
Lemons had been tried on murder charges in 1993, but was acquitted by a jury and legally can't face another trial despite his confession.
It was after Lemons found religion during a prison stay in 1998 that he came forward and admitted he was the one who fired a bullet into Volk's head as he worked on his car in front of his home.
In his confession, Lemons told authorities that Beckman and Bruno were the ones who funneled $5,000 to him for the murder.
Volk apparently became a target after informing gaming authorities that the operators of American Coin had instructed him to alter the computer chips in video poker machines to prevent the largest payoff.
After Volk revealed the computer chip scam, the company was closed and the gaming licenses of the owners -- Rudolph and Rudy M. LaVecchia and Frank Romano -- were surrendered in a deal that required them to pay $1 million fine to the state in February 1990.
American Coin, at the time, was the state's fourth-largest slot route operator, with more than 1,000 machines operating in various Las Vegas locations. It was alleged that 300 machines had been altered.
Although Romano's license was revoked, it was not alleged that he was part of the computer chip scam.
While Beckman pleaded guilty, she did so under a legal provision that does not require her to admit actual responsibility. However her attorney, Patricia Erickson, conceded that there was a chance the California woman could have been convicted had she stood trial on the original murder charges.
Erickson said there was no provision in the plea bargain for cooperation by the defendants in any criminal pursuit of the LaVecchias, who prosecutors have said were close friends of Beckman.
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