Trial set in
solicitation of murders
case
By GREG
MOORE
Express Staff Writer
A 5th
District Court judge found sufficient evidence Tuesday to proceed against
a former Blaine County Jail inmate charged with trying to arrange the
killing of two men expected to testify against him in a drug trafficking
case.
At the
conclusion of a preliminary hearing in Hailey, Judge Mark Ingram ruled
that the state had presented enough evidence to convince him that Louis
Eugene Cunningham, 59, should be bound over to district court for trial on
charges of solicitation of murder in the first degree.
The
prosecution alleges that Cunningham hired a fellow inmate, who told him he
was a former hit man, to kill a Blaine County Sheriff’s detective and a
confidential informant against him. He was arrested by the FBI at his home
in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Feb. 7 as part of a sweep that picked up 11
other alleged drug traffickers in Blaine County.
Cunningham
is charged with two counts of delivery of a total of a pound and a half of
marijuana. According to county Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas, conviction
on those charges could bring a penalty of as much as life in prison
because of Cunningham’s previous trafficking convictions.
In court on
Tuesday, Cunningham, a balding, gray-haired man with glasses and a round
belly listened quietly, occasionally exhibiting a slight smile, as inmate
Sam Nelson testified to conversations he had heard in July between him and
inmate Victor Buchi.
Nelson told
the court that Buchi had presented himself as a former military assassin
and hit man. Nelson said that one evening over dinner, Cunningham asked
Buchi if he had ever killed anyone. When Buchi said he had, Nelson
testified, Cunningham told him that "if the witness (Jesus
"Chewy" Vega) was removed, or killed, there would not be enough
evidence to convict him."
Nelson said
that during the course of several conversations, Cunningham also asked
Buchi to kill a detective who had investigated the case against him. He
said Cunningham offered to pay Buchi $10,000 to kill Vega and $15,000 to
kill the detective, and told him he would arrange payment through a
bondsman to conceal the nature of the deal.
During
questioning by defense attorney Bob Pangburn, Nelson acknowledged that he
had made a plea agreement with the prosecution that included a promise to
testify in this case, but contended that charges were reduced because of a
re-evaluation of the facts, a claim later confirmed by Thomas in an
interview. When Pangburn asked Nelson if he expected to receive any
benefit from his testimony, Nelson said, "None other than seeing a
couple of people who thought they were doing the right thing live."
Following
Nelson’s testimony, Idaho State Police Detective Scott Ward told the
court that Buchi cooperated with police by wearing a body transmitter
during two conversations with Cunningham on July 12 and 16. On July 18,
Ward said, Buchi was transferred from Blaine County Jail to Cassia County
Jail, under the pretense that he had bonded out. Before he left, Buchi
gave Cunningham a phone number where he could reach him. The number was
actually that of a detective at the Cassia County Sheriff’s Office.
During two
recorded calls, Ward said, Cunningham told Buchi he was having trouble
contacting his attorney to get a van and motorcycle he owned transferred
to the bondsman for payment. Ward said the investigation was terminated
when he concluded that Cunningham was unlikely to be able to make the
payments.