Las Vegas police link hit-man liaison to Titus through jail calls

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Las Vegas police are linking two taped phone calls bodybuilder Craig Titus had from jail about a book publishing deal to an alleged plot to murder three witnesses that were to testify against him.

The calls were between Titus and Nelson Brady Jr., who was arrested last week on three charges of solicitation to commit murder.

"Brady said that he had been on the Internet to see which characters are going to be in the book," according to a police affidavit. "Brady says he knows how to keep those characters from being in the book. Titus said, 'Yeah. No (expletive). yeah, from the screenplay, yeah.'"

Authorities allege that earlier this year, Brady paid an undercover detective $1,500 to kill three of the people expected to testify against Titus and the bodybuilder's fitness champion wife, Kelly Ryan.

The couple is to be tried in January on a charge of murder in the death of Melissa James, their 28-year-old personal assistant.

Authorities said the two killed James at their southwest Las Vegas home by beating her, shocking her with a Taser, injecting her with morphine and duct-taping her face.

The three witnesses that were targeted in the alleged murder plot are Anthony Gross, who helped dispose of James' body in the desert, Megan Pierson Foley and her husband, Jeremy Foley, who were at Titus and Ryan's house the night before James' body was found.

The Foleys told police Titus and Ryan made incriminating statements about James' demise.

Pierson Foley also told police that when she left Titus and Ryan's home that night, Titus gave her a black bag containing a Taser. Authorities say that Taser was used in James' slaying.

Police said they uncovered the plan earlier this year when an informant at the Clark County Detention Center, Deem Cassim, said he was approached by Brady regarding a murder-for-hire plot in the Titus case.

Cassim told police he and Brady discussed how much money would be paid to kill Gross.

"They spoke about a $25,000 up front payment and a $25,000 supplemental payment when the job was done," police wrote. "Because Titus was concerned about paying the money up front with no guarantee the job would be done, Cassim suggested he could have the job done on his say-so and Titus would pay $50,000 at the end."

In May, Brady met with an undercover detective and produced two envelopes containing $500 each. In a meeting that was taped by police, Brady was heard discussing how one of the envelopes was for a "book publication."

When detectives later opened the envelopes, they found the money, a photo of Gross and personal information about Gross and the Foleys, according to the reports.

In a subsequent meeting with the undercover detective, Brady produced $500 more and wrote down an address where photos of the dead bodies could be sent, according to police.

Titus and Brady had been housed together for two weeks in February in the same section of the Clark County Detention Center.

Brady also helped get two of the three Las Vegas homes the couple owned ready for sale earlier this year.

Titus' attorney Marc Saggese said Monday that Brady's father, at his son's request, "helped ... him (Titus) evict the tenants and change the locks."

Saggese said Titus denied allegations that he and Brady had plotted to kill the witnesses.

"Craig Titus didn't have any idea that these wheels were potentially turning," Saggese said. "He is very isolated in jail. What people do outside of jail, believing they could somehow assist Craig, is totally out of Craig's control."

Prosecutor Robert Daskas did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

Titus, 41, is a past place finisher in the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. Ryan, 34, is a successful female fitness athlete in America.