Charges upgraded against bodybuilding duo in Las Vegas slaying
LAS VEGAS -- Professional bodybuilders Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan were charged Wednesday with using a stun gun, drugging and suffocating their live-in personal assistant before her dead body was found in Ryan's burned-out Jaguar.
They remained shackled to other Clark County jail inmates as they sat two rows apart.
Titus' rippling arm muscles stretched the fabric of his blue jail uniform. He offered a one-word reply when he and Ryan stood and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure asked each if they understood the charges.
"Absolutely," Titus said.
"Yes, sir," Ryan said.
Daskas declined Wednesday to describe a motive for the slaying. The complaint accuses Titus and Ryan of using a Taser stun gun, administering morphine or a related drug, and asphyxiating or suffocating James with a fabric or wire around her neck.
Their lawyers have maintained Titus and Ryan are innocent of the charges.
"On behalf of our client, he is 100 percent not guilty," Boston-based lawyer Steven Boozang said as he and Las Vegas lawyer Richard Schonfeld met reporters outside the courtroom.
Ryan's lawyer, Tom Pitaro, was not immediately available for comment.
Bonaventure, who had planned to consider bail for Ryan, scheduled a formal bail hearing Feb. 10, and a preliminary hearing March 29.
An alleged accomplice in the case, Anthony Gross, also appeared in court Wednesday, although charges against him remained the same.
Gross, 23, was arrested Dec. 21 and has pleaded not guilty to accessory to murder and third-degree arson. He remains under house arrest after posting $13,000 bail.
His lawyer, Louis Palazzo, noted Wednesday that Gross remained in Las Vegas and cooperated with police when he was interviewed after James' body was found.
Gross told authorities he bought a can of gasoline and followed in his pickup while Titus allegedly drove the Jaguar to a remote spot outside Las Vegas, took the gas and set the car afire. Gross told police he drove Titus back to Las Vegas, but they did not discuss what happened.
Titus and Ryan were arrested Dec. 23 in Stoughton, Mass., near Boston, and returned last week to Clark County jail.
Boozang has denied the couple fled Las Vegas to avoid charges after being interviewed by police in the case. He said they had intended to spend the Christmas holidays with friends in the Boston area, and left town before charges were filed and arrest warrants were issued Dec. 20.
A Clark County prosecutor, Robert Daskas, called it premature to say whether authorities would seek the death penalty based on upgraded charges including murder and kidnapping against Ryan, and kidnapping against Titus. Titus, 41, who made his first appearance in a Las Vegas court, previously faced murder, accessory to murder and third-degree arson charges.
Ryan, 33, had appeared Tuesday on accessory and arson charges in the slaying of 28-year-old Melissa James, a former fitness instructor who moved last year from Lambertville, N.J. to live with Titus and Ryan. Her charred body was found Dec. 14 in the trunk of Ryan's burned Jaguar off a desert highway outside Las Vegas.
Neither Titus, nor his wife, Ryan, was asked Wednesday to enter a plea to the amended complaint.
Titus won a 1996 bodybuilding championship and competed in Mr. Olympia events. Ryan is a past Fitness America and Fitness International winner and Fitness Olympia runner-up.
