LAS VEGAS (AP) - A woman with ties to a man and woman accused of killing a 24-year-old Las Vegas model whose body was found in the desert encased in concrete has pleaded guilty to accessory to murder, court records show.
Lisa Mort, 32, avoided trial with her plea to a felony charge in the slaying of Esmeralda Gonzalez, whose body was found in October near Glendale, northeast of Las Vegas. She had been reported missing May 31.
Mort’s attorney, Adam Gill, said Tuesday his client made no commitment to testify against her boyfriend, Christopher Prestipino, and Prestipino’s roommate, Casandra Garrett.
Prestipino and Garrett are accused of strangling Gonzalez and injecting her with a swimming pool chemical before disposing of her body in a homemade concrete-and-wood structure.
Gill declined to comment about the plea agreement filed Feb. 12 or the sentence his client faces in court April 1. Mort is being held at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas.
Prosecutors agreed to drop unrelated felony heroin and methamphetamine possession charges against Mort stemming from her arrest last August.
Authorities alleged that while Mort was in jail she warned Prestipino by telephone that Las Vegas police were investigating Gonzalez’s death.Mort was accused of helping Prestipino avoid arrest.
Prestipino, 46, traveled to Belize before he was arrested in October in Las Vegas. He pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges; was freed on $500,000 bond in November; and was and re-arrested Jan. 31 after failing to appear in court for a scheduled hearing.
Prestipino is scheduled in court Wednesday on a bid to have charges against him dismissed. His trial is scheduled in April.
Garrett, 40, remains jailed after pleading not guilty to murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges. She was arrested in October in Wisconsin. Her trial is scheduled in November.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that prosecutors have accused Prestipino of violating terms of his release from jail by trying to contact Mort while he was out of custody and she was in jail.
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