Pima County authorities are preparing to announce criminal charges in the 12-year-old car-bomb slaying of Tucson businessman Gary Triano, the Arizona Daily Star has learned.
Triano's death in the parking lot of La Paloma Country Club in Tucson's upscale Catalina Foothills has been one of Arizona's major mysteries.
Criminal charges were expected to be announced today, law-enforcement sources said Thursday night, speaking on condition that they not be identified.
Pima County sheriff's spokeswoman Dawn Barkman said no sheriff's official would discuss the case Thursday. Asked about any major development in the case, she said there "probably would be something coming along" today. She would not say whether it involves criminal charges.
Triano died Nov. 1, 1996, when his Lincoln Town Car exploded as he was leaving the club to celebrate his birthday after playing golf.
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A task force of local, state and federal agencies scrutinized Triano's personal life and business dealings, including real estate investments and gaming deals, from Tucson to China.
In September 2006, authorities named Triano's ex-wife, Pamela Phillips, and her ex-boyfriend, Ronald Young, as suspects in the slaying. Neither was charged in the case.
In a 2006 affidavit filed to obtain a warrant to search Phillips' Colorado home, a sheriff's detective said he believed Phillips and Young conspired to kill Triano to benefit from his $2 million life-insurance policy.
But an attorney who once represented her, Doug Clark, said at the time of the search that Phillips was innocent and many people had motives to kill Triano.
In a 2007 civil suit filed in Pima County Superior Court, Tucson attorney Elliot Glicksman alleged that Young killed Triano because Phillips repeatedly told Young she wanted him dead. The pending suit was filed on behalf of three Triano children.
Glicksman said Thursday that his requests for law-enforcement records as part of his research in the civil case caused authorities to review the records again while preparing them for release, but that he knew of no criminal indictment.
Glicksman has an appointment to interview Phillips in a deposition next month in Colorado, he said Thursday.
According to court documents, Pima County sheriff's detectives have been maintaining a great deal of evidence since Triano's slaying, including: 15 file boxes with hundreds of taped and transcribed interviews, 80 storage boxes from Triano's office, 300 separate items collected from the blast scene, Triano's vehicle, 11 storage boxes of evidence seized from Young, 16 storage boxes of evidence seized from Phillips' Tucson home, eight computers seized from Phillips, two computers belonging to Young, 32 CDs of photos and three file drawers of other materials relating to the investigation.
