11-21-06: Informant gets reduced sentence

[Ron]

Man told authorities of murder-for-hire plot
By GLENN PUIT, Review Journal

An informant in the Craig Titus murder case had his lengthy prison sentence reduced to probation after ferreting out an alleged plot to kill three witnesses against the bodybuilder, according to court records obtained by the Review-Journal.

In March, Deen Cassim, 32, had been sentenced to three to 12 years in prison for the high-profile robbery of a national poker player.

But after working as an informant who exposed an alleged plot to have three witnesses killed in Titus' murder case, Cassim was resentenced to probation in June, then released from the Clark County Detention Center.

Titus defense attorney Marc Saggese said that the benefits afforded to Cassim by authorities were inappropriate and that he now thinks Titus was the victim of a setup.

"Deen Cassim is a violent criminal, and they've let a violent criminal out on the streets," Saggese said. "I've never seen anything like this."

Saggese said he has never seen a defendant who already has been sentenced to prison resentenced in the same case after cooperating with authorities.

"Do you know how hard it is to amend a sentencing like this? Saggese said. "I'm floored. I have never, ever, heard of a resentencing of a convicted felon like that."

The prosecutor in the Titus case, Robert Daskas, declined comment Monday.

Cassim's attorney, Marty Hart, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Titus, 41, is a nationally known bodybuilder who competed twice in the Mr. Olympia competition. He and his wife, national fitness champion Kelly Ryan, are charged with murder in the December death of their personal assistant, Melissa James, 28. Authorities allege Titus and Ryan killed James, then burned her body in the trunk of Ryan's Jaguar in the desert off state Route 160.

Cassim was the man behind the 2004 robbery of World Series of Poker champion Greg "the Fossilman" Raymer, at the Bellagio. Cassim and another man approached Raymer outside his hotel room and tried to rob him at gunpoint of $150,000 in poker chips. Raymer fended off the two assailants, and Cassim later pleaded guilty to the crime.

In March, District Judge Joseph Bonaventure sentenced Cassim to three to 12 years in prison. Weeks after Cassim was sentenced, he approached authorities and said he had information about a plot to murder witnesses in the Titus case, police reports indicate. Cassim told police that he had been approached by an inmate at the Clark County Detention Center named Nelson Brady Jr. and that Brady was trying to have witnesses in Titus' case killed.

According to police reports, when Brady was released from the Clark County Detention Center, Cassim and Brady stayed in regular contact through phone calls monitored by Las Vegas detectives.

Cassim promised Brady in the calls that he could arrange for a hit man to kill the witnesses, and in May, authorities allege, Brady met with an undercover detective posing as a go-between for a hit man.

Authorities said Brady handed over $1,500 to the undercover detective for the killings of the witnesses in the Titus case.

Brady was recorded twice talking to Titus on phone lines at the Clark County Detention Center about a "book deal" and a "screenplay." Authorities suspect the men were talking in code about the murder-for-hire plot.

Brady was arrested in October and charged with three counts of solicitation to commit murder. Titus has not been charged in the alleged plot to have witnesses in his case killed, but Daskas said in court two weeks ago that he is convinced Titus was involved in the plot.

According to police reports, Brady targeted three potential witnesses against Titus: Anthony Gross, Megan Pierson Foley and her husband, Jeremy Foley.

Gross is Titus' and Ryan's co-defendant and is charged in a separate case with helping dispose of James' body. The Foleys have told authorities that Titus and Ryan made incriminating statements about their involvement in James' death.

Brady's lawyer, Erick Ferran, did not return the Review-Journal's call seeking comment.

[Motorbreath]

"Deen Cassim is a violent criminal, and they've let a violent criminal out on the streets," Saggese said. "I've never seen anything like this."

Saggese said he has never seen a defendant who already has been sentenced to prison resentenced in the same case after cooperating with authorities.

"Do you know how hard it is to amend a sentencing like this? Saggese said. "I'm floored. I have never, ever, heard of a resentencing of a convicted felon like that."

Craigs lawyer sounds as DUMB as he is.....hasn't this guy ever heard of Sammy the Bull?? Just one of MANY violent criminals that roll on other's and get lesser sentences, get out on the streets only to continue life as a carrer criminal only to end up back in the joint.

Craig is so F*cked........hhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa 

[Don Miracle]

...hasn't this guy ever heard of Sammy the Bull??

I get your point, but there is a very definite difference in the two situations: Sammy the Bull was Gotti's man.  They shared culpability.  The deal given to Gravano was essentially a shifting of percentages in the culpability, meaning that Sammy would be compensated for his testimony by being practically absolved in the case.  Keep in mind that 'The Bull' probably killed nearly twenty people over a ten year period.

The feds kept close watch on him, though.  He was later busted with his son for running an ecstasy supply ring.  He claimed that he was just 'showing the boy how to turn a profit'.

In this murder-for-hire case, though, the resentencing should hardly seem fair to Cassim's victim. 

[OneBigMan]

Sometimes those jailhouse informants do a real good job snitching on inmates who know how to manipulate the system from behind bars to their contacts on the outside. That is the same garbage that Mr. Tookie Williams was planning to do IF that thing had not been totally eliminated from society.

[ramazon]

Sometimes those jailhouse informants do a real good job snitching on inmates who know how to manipulate the system from behind bars to their contacts on the outside. That is the same garbage that Mr. Tookie Williams was planning to do IF that thing had not been totally eliminated from society.

Cons conning cons (say that 3xs)...cellmates soliciting one another's trust and trading up for a lesser sentence and a snitch jacket.  Cassim had a choice: to organize the hit and perhaps blackmail Craig afterwards, or offer it all up to the D.A.  The stupidity here was the use of monitored jailhouse telephones for communication.  The further tragedy was to involve desperate family members, and dangerously unethical attorneys.  And the case is still in the First Act, for
Pete's sake.  Will Craig even make it to trial?

[Stark]

wow not a bad deal... yesterday he was looking at max 12 years... today he is out on probation.

[DutchBotje]

USA laws stinks, they like stitching, it sucks, that can make somebody to claim just about anything as long as "they" get their sentence reduced ejejeje , only in America
 

[OneBigMan]

Cons conning cons (say that 3xs)...cellmates soliciting one another's trust and trading up for a lesser sentence and a snitch jacket.  Cassim had a choice: to organize the hit and perhaps blackmail Craig afterwards, or offer it all up to the D.A.  The stupidity here was the use of monitored jailhouse telephones for communication.  The further tragedy was to involve desperate family members, and dangerously unethical attorneys.  And the case is still in the First Act, for
Pete's sake.  Will Craig even make it to trial?

I stand by what I said previously about snitching because sometimes it does lead to saving lives and preventing people such as Mr. Tookie Williams from becoming a power monger. On the other hand, I don't have to say anything about Mr. Titus.

[bigdumbbell]

good for him.  punks like titus are scum

[shockandawe]

Boy, I sure hope Kelly starts distancing herself from the stench, finally!  If she doesn't, either her lawyer should be sued for gross misrepresentation for not practically forcing her to do so, or she should be placed in a mental hospital for permanent head examindation. If there ever was a time to start separating herself from Craig, it's now. This God stuff only goes so far. I realize she feels she's been handed a "blessing", by having this happen, but it won't seem too much of a blessing when she goes down for life because of her lowlife thug of a husband.

Not saying Kelly isn't part of it, don't misunderstand, but I just think from a strategic standpoint, she would do well to begin the "I have been brainwashed from drugs and abuse for years... years of abuse as a child, sexual abuse, etc..." to establish a pattern. If she doesn't, she's a goner too in light of these developments. She needs to stop pining away for Craig and start taking stock of her future...what little there may be left.
She needs to stop having conversations with him and break all contact. They'll never be out and have a normal marriage now, so why hang in there? It's pointless and really dumb.

[chainsaw]

USA laws stinks, they like stitching, it sucks, that can make somebody to claim just about anything as long as "they" get their sentence reduced ejejeje , only in America
 

Only in America, you can get, have, own, pursue any efffffing thing you want as long as you work towards it.  Why else would everyone in the world want to live here!