Frustrated by lawyers who had been advising him to keep quiet, 41-year-old bodybuilder and slaying suspect Craig Titus fired his legal team this week.
Then, in his first public interview since his arrest Dec. 23, Titus wept as he told the Review-Journal at the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday afternoon that he and his wife loved Melissa James, their 28-year-old live-in personal assistant whom they are accused of killing.
Titus said he and 33-year-old fitness champion Kelly Ryan "are not guilty of murdering anybody."
"My wife and I are caring people. We are loving people," Titus said. "We are not the horrific monsters we've been portrayed as.
"Kelly and I loved Melissa," Titus said. "She was our friend. She was family. ... She was one of my best friends."
Titus said the only thing he is guilty of is bad judgment on the night James' body was set ablaze in the trunk of Ryan's red Jaguar in the desert off Blue Diamond Road.
Although Titus wouldn't discuss exactly what he had done that evening, he told police last year that James overdosed on drugs at the couple's southwest Las Vegas house and that he panicked and burned the body to try to avoid negative publicity that would have ruined the couple's careers.
"I'm guilty of some very, very bad judgment," Titus said Wednesday. "I'm guilty of some very poor decisions.
"I wish I would have just listened to my wife and called the police," Titus said, choking back emotion.
Ryan is a fitness champion and Ms. Olympia runner-up. Titus is a past place-winner of international Mr. Olympia competitions.
Titus said he had known James since approximately 1999. He said he met her in Panama City, Fla., when she worked as a driver for him when he was competing in a bodybuilding show there.
"A great girl," he said. "We were best friends. And she really became good friends with my wife, too."
Fighting back tears, he said James was a good person. She spent much of her time running a dance studio and teaching young children how to dance in Florida.
After she moved in with the couple in California, James became addicted to methamphetamine, Titus said.
"The drug use became prevalent," Titus said. "We had to ask her to move out."
He said that James later rejoined the couple when they moved to Las Vegas in 2003, and that she continued to struggle with methamphetamine use.
"I watched a human being disintegrate in front of my eyes," Titus said, adding, "This crystal meth is destroying the United States."
Witnesses, however, have told police that Titus and Ryan were themselves prolific drug users, according to police reports.
When asked about his and Ryan's reported drug use, Titus said: "I feel like we were an average couple, going out on weekends, and that's as far as I'm going to go with it."
Titus said he has had a tough time being incarcerated but has been able to endure the past 8 1/2 months behind bars because he has been allowed to have video conference meetings with his jailed wife twice a week on account of their married status.
Police allege that Titus and Ryan attacked James with a Taser, drugged her with morphine, duct-taped her face, restrained her and beat her. They then put her in the trunk of Ryan's car, drove it into the desert off state Route 160, and set it on fire, authorities said. The burning car -- and the body in it -- were discovered Dec. 14.
An autopsy was unable to determine a cause or manner of James' death, meaning the Clark County coroner's office never ruled the death a homicide.
Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas, however, said the evidence supporting the murder charges against the couple is "overwhelming."
At first, Titus and Ryan told police they didn't know how James ended up dead in the trunk of Ryan's car. Shortly after their initial statements to police, the couple went to the East Coast.
They were arrested by federal authorities in Massachusetts.
After they were arrested, however, Titus told police in Boston that James died of a drug overdose in his car, and that he panicked and disposed of the body instead of calling the police.
"Found her (James) in the (expletive) car dead, stinking up my (expletive) car," Titus told detectives in an interview taped on Dec. 24. "I panicked. That gets in the newspaper, we're ruined. Dead girl, car, OD'd, Craig Titus, Kelly Ryan. We're (expletive) ruined," Titus said. "Plus, not to mention that my car's ruined."
Several of Titus and Ryan's friends have told police that Titus and Ryan made incriminating statements to them about James' death.
Police recovered Titus' Taser gun, and a search of Titus and Ryan's home turned up Taser "dots," which are remnants from the discharge of a Taser gun.
Titus' decision to go public is a complete about face from his prior legal strategy.
But he said he has wanted to talk publicly about the charges against him since the moment authorities started to voice suspicions that he and his wife were suspects in James' death.
But, he said, his prior defense attorneys, Richard Schonfeld and Steven Boozang, prevented him from speaking out.
"I've never been scared to talk to the press," he said. "It was the attorneys. ... Unfortunately, though, in this cynical world we live in, things can spin out of control in a hurry."
Titus said he has fired Schonfeld and Boozang, and hired Las Vegas defense attorney Mark Saggese.
"He's innocent, and he's going home in January," Saggese said. "I'm going to walk him. So far, the public has only had a completely one-sided story as to what the facts are in this case."
Ryan also has changed lawyers. She was represented by Thomas Pitaro. Her new lawyer is Greg Denue.
"This is going to be a war," Denue said. "We are going to fight this because she's innocent, and she shouldn't even be at the Clark County Detention Center."
Pitaro declined to comment. Schonfeld returned a phone call seeking comment and left a message but later could not be reached for an interview. Boozang, of Boston, also could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
From Glen Puit
Las Vegas Review Journal
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Sep-14-Thu-2006/news/9647034.html
