MURDER CASE: Defense claims new witness
Statement will exonerate Titus, attorneys say
By GLENN PUIT
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The defense team for slaying suspect Craig Titus claims it has uncovered a witness who will help the famous bodybuilder fight the charges against him.
Titus and his wife, fitness champion Kelly Ryan, are charged with killing their live-in personal assistant, Melissa James, at their southwest Las Vegas residence a year ago, then burning her body in the desert.
A co-defendant, Anthony Gross, is charged with helping the couple drive the remains into the desert. Gross told police that he was duped into participating in the scheme and that he never knew he was helping Titus and Ryan get rid of a dead body.
But defense attorneys said that in a statement given to Titus' private investigator, Tom Dillard, in September, witness John Darrin Allen, 22, of Las Vegas said that he was housed at the Clark County Detention Center with Gross in December 2005 and that Gross contradicted his account to police.
"I said, 'Is it true or not that he (Titus) killed her, and what happened?'" Allen said he asked Gross.
"And he came out with, 'No, he didn't kill her,'" Allen said. "(Gross said) 'Craig Titus called me at my house, told me that this lady died, uh, OD'd in my (Titus') house, can you help me?'"
Allen said Gross told him that he drove to Titus and Ryan's house and duct-taped James' dead body, and that he then came up with the idea of burning the body in the desert.
"He (Gross) said, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of this,'" Allen said.
"(Gross) taped her up in a ball, picked her up, put her in the trunk, and then drove off to wherever they burnt the car," Allen said.
"When he (Gross) took the body and put it in the trunk, he told Craig Titus, 'No body, no crime,'" Allen said.
Several months later, Allen said, he met Titus in the Clark County Detention Center and told him what Gross had said.
Titus asked him, "Will you testify for me?"
"I said, 'Yeah, I'll testify for you,'" Allen said. "And then we left it at that."
Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas said Thursday evening that Allen's statement was not credible.
The prosecutor noted that Titus, in a taped statement to police, had already confessed to being the one who duct-taped James. Titus also confessed to police that he was the one who put the body in the trunk of his wife's car, that he drove it to the desert and that he set James' remains ablaze.
"Back on December 24, 2005, Titus himself admitted to detectives that it was he, Craig Titus, who wrapped the duct tape around Melissa James' head," Daskas said. "Therefore, the notion that Anthony Gross did this is laughable. Mr. Titus' most recent explanation reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain: 'If you tell the truth, you'll always remember what you said.' Craig Titus can't keep his stories straight."
Gross' attorney, Louis Palazzo, accused Titus of putting Allen up to making the statement. He said it will eventually come out that Allen's allegations against Gross are untrue.
"This guy (Titus) doesn't understand the first rule of hole digging: Put the shovel down and stop digging," Palazzo said. "It's amazing with this guy. The hits just keep on coming."
But Titus' defense attorney, Marc Saggese, said that he had met with Allen and that the young man's account was credible.
Saggese said that police had interviewed Allen and that to this date, the contents of the interview had not been provided to him.
"We believe this evidence was withheld from the defense," Saggese said.
Allen was in custody at the time on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle. He could not be reached for comment for this report. The number listed for Allen on his taped statement is for a local construction company, not a residence.
Titus, 42, is a nationally known bodybuilder who has competed twice in the Mr. Olympia competition. Ryan is regarded by many to be the greatest women's fitness competitor in the sports history.
According to authorities, the couple beat James, duct- taped her, drugged her with morphine, hit her with a Taser, then set the body on fire in Ryan's red Jaguar off state Route 160. A cause and manner of death for James could not be determined.
Titus and Ryan originally told police they didn't know how James ended up dead in Ryan's car. In a second statement, they said that they found James dead of a drug overdose in Ryan's car, and that they panicked and set the body on fire in the desert.
Both Titus and Ryan were in the courtroom of District Judge Jackie Glass on Thursday morning for a hearing in which Glass delayed the couple's trial until April.
The delay was granted after defense attorneys said they needed more time to investigate the case.
In Titus' Dec. 24 statement to detectives after his arrest in Boston, he made clear that he was the one who had duct- taped James and put her in the trunk of the Jaguar. He didn't say that Gross was involved in this activity.
"Found her in the (expletive) car, dead, stinking up my (expletive) car," Titus said. "Stench. Piss, (expletive) all over the place. Well, I'm assuming that's what it smelled like. I panicked. That gets in the newspaper, we're ruined. Dead girl, car, OD'd, Craig Titus, Kelly Ryan. We're ruined. Plus, not to mention that my car's ruined.
"So I think, okay, let's put her in the trunk and burn it and play stupid," Titus said. "That's what we did. Period. Finito. End of story."
When asked why he had duct-taped the victim, Titus said: "I didn't want to see her face."
Saggese said Thursday that Titus didn't implicate Gross at the time because he believed the facts of the case would show that James had overdosed, and he didn't want to drag Gross into the matter.
"He was trying to protect him," Saggese said. "He was trying to keep another person from being dragged into this tragedy."
In October, authorities arrested an acquaintance of Titus', Nelson Brady Jr., on charges of trying to hire a hit man to kill three witnesses in the case.
One of the individuals allegedly targeted was Gross.
Titus has not been charged in the murder-for-hire plot, but Daskas has said he believes Titus was involved.
Titus has denied involvement in the scheme.