Woman reaches tentative plea deal in teacher’s slaying

By Conor Shine

Published Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 | 11:28 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 | 10:19 p.m.

A tentative plea deal has been reached between prosecutors and a 20-year-old woman who is one of six defendants charged in the robbery and slaying of a Las Vegas high school teacher, a defense attorney said.

Details of the plea were not disclosed because the case is still pending.

Bridget Lugo appeared with her attorney Frank Kocka in Clark County District Court on Thursday morning before Judge Jennifer Togliatti. Lugo remained silent throughout the hearing, as her attorney informed the judge that a plea agreement had been reached.

Togliatti set a new hearing for Dec. 29 for Lugo to enter her plea.

Lugo had been scheduled to go to trial last week on multiple felony charges, including murder with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon.

Lugo would be the second defendant to plead guilty in the case stemming from an October 2010 attack in which 50-year-old Timothy VanDerbosch, a physics and chemistry teacher at Eldorado High School, was killed.

Marisol Diaz, 16, received house arrest in a tentative deal her attorneys worked out in September that requires her to testify.

Daniel Carrillo, 16, was sentenced on Oct. 7 to a minimum of 19 years in prison after pleading guilty in July to several felonies, including second-degree murder.

VanDerbosch died Oct. 20, 2010, after he was chased, robbed, beaten into unconsciousness and run over by a truck as he was walking to school, police said.

The indictment alleges that VanDerbosch was robbed using a firearm and/or a knife and was hit in the head and body, causing him to fall into the road, where he was fatally struck by a vehicle.

According to the indictment: “The defendants and the accomplices encouraged one another throughout by actions and words, the defendants and their accomplices acted in concert throughout each with the intent to commit the crime(s).”

Two defendants in the case are facing the death penalty. Saul Farvela, 19, will have his trial at 10:30 a.m. March 5, 2012. David Rosas, 20, will have his trial at 10:30 a.m. April 9, 2012.

Marco Coronel Castrejon, who is not facing the death penalty, is scheduled to go to trial at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 21.

CORRECTION: This story has been changed to put the correct sentence in for Daniel Carrillo and to reflect that Marisol Diaz has not yet pleaded guilty to any charges. | (December 15, 2011)