Key witness admits to taking part in killing Margello

A key witness for the prosecution in the du Pont murder trial testified Friday that she lured Patti Margello to her death because she feared for her own life.

Diana Hironaga, a former porn star and prostitute, who has turned state evidence, took the stand on the fourth day of Ricardo Murillo's federal murder trial.

Margello, 45, was found stuffed inside an air conditioning vent at the Del Mar Resort Motel on Aug. 6, 1998. She had been strangled, wrapped up in bed linens and trash bags and bound with coaxial and jumper cables.

Hironaga testified that Delaware resident Christopher Moseley hired her, Murillo and Joseph Balignasa to kill Margello because he disapproved of Margello's relationship with his stepson, Dean MacGuigan.

MacGuigan, 42, is the son of Lisa Dean Moseley, a direct descendant of the founder of the Dupont Chemical Corp.

Balignasa is awaiting trial. Hironaga, 41, and Christopher Moseley, 59, have admitted to their part in Margello's death. They agreed to testify against Murillo in the hopes of convincing the government to recommend something other than a life sentence to the judge.

Although she admitted to having given at least six false statements to the police in the weeks and months after Margello's death, Hironaga insisted she was telling the truth Friday.

"I need to tell the truth. A murder's been committed," Hironaga told Shari Kaufman, assistant federal public defender, under cross-examination.

Kaufman pointed out that a murder had been committed before each of the six interviews Hironaga lied during, too.

Hironaga said she was playing video poker at a local hotel on July 10, 1998, when Moseley struck up a conversation with her and began sticking $100 bills into her machine. Over the next two days the two would meet, gamble and talk.

Moseley told her about being in a "secret service higher than the CIA," traveling around the world in disguises and having a stepson who was addicted to drugs.

Two days after they met, Hironaga said Moseley hired her to get MacGuigan and Margello off drugs, to help MacGuigan get divorced and to get MacGuigan a job. He called their plan "Operation Dean."

When Moseley also mentioned needing bodyguards, Hironaga said she introduced him to Murillo and Balignasa.

Hironaga said Moseley hired Murillo and Balignasa for $100,000 a year apiece. At their initial meeting Moseley said that if Margello and MacGuigan weren't off drugs within six weeks that they were to "get them some bad stuff and do them in," she said.

That plan became known as Step 5 of Operation Dean and she was placed in charge of it, Hironaga said.

Moseley flew home after handing her a $5,000 check, Hironaga said.

Over the next two weeks Hironaga said Moseley sent her several hundred dollars and the two corresponded several times via fax and phone.

On July 28 Moseley flew back to Las Vegas and after getting into a fight with Margello and MacGuigan, Moseley told Hironaga he was going to put an untraceable poison in Margello's drink and put her on a plane back to Delaware, Hironaga said.

"He said she'd come off the plane in a body bag," Hironaga said.

However, that plan fell through when Margello refused to leave Las Vegas, Hironaga said. Moseley ended up flying back to Delaware alone.

On July 30 Hironaga said Moseley told her to go through with Step 5, but only with Margello. He then suggested that she lure Margello out of MacGuigan's hotel room by saying that two friends of hers wanted to pay them $2,000 for some companionship, Hironaga said.

Moseley told her that if she failed to do so, she would be killed, Hironaga said.

Hironago invited Margello to entertain two high rollers and Margello agreed, she said. Early on the morning of Aug. 2, Hironaga said she, Margello, Balignasa and Murillo ended up in Room 6 of the Del Mar Resort Motel on Las Vegas Boulevard South.

Hironaga matter-of-factly described how Murillo grabbed Margello by the neck and then strangled her with Balignasa's belt shortly after the four of them finished smoking some methamphetamine.

Hironaga said that at some point she ended up falling on Margello and when she tried to regain her balance, she grabbed Margello's wrists, forcing Margello to let go of Murillo's hair.

"Two or three minutes or two or three seconds later," Margello's arms went limp, Hironaga said.

Hironaga would not provide a direct answer to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom O'Connell's question as to whether her hold on Margello's wrist aided Murillo.

Balignasa and Murillo left for about 30 minutes and when they came back they had three soft drinks, tape and trash bags, Hironaga said. Murillo also brought in a hack saw and some other tools from his car.

"He told me he was going to cut her up into little pieces," Hironaga said. "I told him not to because we already had a big enough mess and she had AIDS and he didn't have no gloves to protect himself with."

Murillo ordered her and Balignasa to wrap Margello up and "after she was packaged up" they shoved her into the air conditioning vent, Hironaga said.

Afterwards, Murillo forced her to wipe the room clean of fingerprints using the hotel's towels, Hironaga said. He then put the towels in the trunk of his car.

According to court testimony, evidence technicians were unable to match fingerprints found at the scene with those of Margello, Murillo, Hironaga or Balignasa. Police said towels matching those at the Del Mar were found in Murillo's car.

On the way back to her hotel, Hironaga said the trio stopped at a drug store to buy cigarettes and bandages for a scratch mark left on Murillo's arm by Margello.

According to earlier court testimony, however, the blood and hair found under Margello's fingernails were her own and did not match Murillo's.

On Aug. 4 Hironaga said she and Murillo flew to Philadelphia and were paid $15,000 by Moseley's limousine driver.

Kaufman tried to damage Hironaga's credibility by focusing on Hironaga's lurid lifestyle and the six lie-filled statements she confessed making to police.

Kaufman also questioned why Hironaga accepted money from Moseley and recommended her friends for jobs with him when she was supposedly terrified of him.

"I can't explain, I just went along with the program," Hironaga said.

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