Grand jury indicts suspects in alleged kidnapping of Las Vegas business owner
Two men accused of kidnapping a construction company owner were indicted by a grand jury, prosecutors announced Friday.
Authorities have alleged that Jonathan Martinez, 40, and William Costa, 42, kidnapped Larry Gilmore, an owner of Gilmore Construction, on Feb. 20.
Police said an IRS investigation had found Costa’s wife, Cynthia Marabella, stole $20 million from Gilmore’s company.
State and federal court records do not show any recent cases for Marabella.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department report, Costa told Gilmore he had to choose between telling the IRS the money was a gift or business investment and having his family killed if he couldn’t “make Marabella’s charges go away” or talked about the incident.
Deputy District Attorney James Puccinelli said at a Friday hearing that a grand jury indicted Costa and Martinez on counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, first degree kidnapping, battery, extortion, robbery, coercion with physical force or threat of force and preventing a witness or victim from reporting a crime.
Defense attorney Ryan Alexander, who represents Costa, declined to comment. Ryan Helmick, Martinez’s lawyer, reiterated his previous comment that that story has “two sides.”
Both defendants are in custody, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Dickerson told Chief District Judge Jerry Wiese. For Martinez, who was previously indicted Feb. 28, it was a superseding indictment.
Dickerson requested Wiese set Martinez’s bail at $500,000 and Costa’s at $1.5 million.
Wiese granted the request and ordered hearings to held on the source of the funds if either defendant posts bail. Those bail amounts mirror what was previously set in Justice Court.
Grand jury transcripts are generally public, but in this case, the judge sealed them at the request of prosecutors.
Dickerson said other co-conspirators are “outstanding” and authorities are still investigating them.
“I believe that revealing publicly the contents of the grand jury transcripts could potentially compromise our current investigation and our ability to locate them and locate evidence,” he added.
The defendants are due back in court on March 12. Martinez has invoked his right to a speedy trial.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
