Ex-Vegas firefighter cast as mastermind in wife slaying case - WRAL.com
— A prosecutor alleged Tuesday that George Miguel Tiaffay befriended, supplied and promised to pay a homeless handyman who bludgeoned his casino cocktail server wife to death with a claw hammer a few weeks after the couple filed for divorce. Tiaffay's defense lawyer contended that the homeless man, Noel Scott Stevens, can't be believed and that Tiaffay — a West Point graduate and former Las Vegas firefighter — was being wrongly prosecuted on murder, conspiracy and other charges. "It's a good story," defense attorney Robert Langford told a Clark County District Court jury after prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo outlined what he termed a trail of manipulation, deception and circumstantial evidence pointing to Tiaffay's guilt in the... He was at work when the 46-year-old mother of their 8-year-old daughter was attacked and killed as she returned home about 3:30 a. m. from a night shift at the Palms Casino Hotel. But police found that Tiaffay telephoned Stevens 87 times in the month before the slaying — almost as many times as the wife who'd told him their relationship was over and that they should continue to live separately. Bloody jeans with DNA matching Stevens and Shauna Tiaffay were found near one of Stevens' tents. The jury saw store video showing Tiaffay and Stevens together buying dark clothes at a Walmart, and a hammer, knife and gloves at another store several weeks before the slaying. Source: www.wral.com
