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Bounty hunter held in plot
LV bail bondsman wanted partner killed, police say
By BRIAN HAYNES
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Tim Deam
Scheduled for initial court appearance this morning
Robert Suckoll
Says he has lived in fear for his life for weeks
When his business partner and two other men were arrested last year in El Salvador for trying to return a fugitive child molestation suspect to Las Vegas, bail bondsman Tim Deam said he just wanted them home.
But a year later, police say, Deam just wanted his business partner dead.
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Las Vegas police arrested Deam, 44, Tuesday in a murder-for-hire plot targeting Robert Suckoll. Suckoll has been battling Deam in court over ownership of Dirty Deeds Bail Bonds. Deam was charged with one count of soliciting murder.
According to a police report, Deam wanted Gregory James to kill Suckoll.
But James knew and immediately told Suckoll, Suckoll said.
They called Las Vegas police, who gave James a wire, and they tape-recorded Deam offering $3,000 for the hit, according to the report.
"Just knowing he's behind bars and knowing he can't get out and do things like this is a huge burden lifted," said Suckoll, who had heard for weeks that his life might be in danger.
Lawyer Barry Levinson, who is representing Deam in his ongoing civil lawsuit against Suckoll, said his client was framed.
"He's completely innocent," Levinson said. "He didn't do it. This all stems from the bad blood between them."
According to the police report, James met Deam on Sept. 7 at the Dirty Deeds office in downtown Las Vegas. During the meeting Deam gave James two home addresses for Suckoll and security gate codes, and he suggested that James could catch Suckoll alone at night because Suckoll owns a pest control business, the report said.
But Deam warned James about doing anything at Suckoll's house "because you have Mayor Montandon that lives right behind him, North Las Vegas mayor. If anything happens in that neighborhood they'll be on ya so (expletive) quick. So I think the best thing is to catch him alone," according to the report.
Deam also wanted to pin the hit on Mara Salvatrucha, an international gang known for its brutality, the report said.
"Put an M.S. on him. That's the Salvadorian gang," Deam said, according to the report.
Deam told James he had to borrow money to pay bills and would pay for the hit once he got the business up and running, the report said.
The meeting confirmed what Suckoll had feared for weeks. In that time he was always looking over his shoulder, and he stashed loaded guns throughout the house. He and his wife, Lesley, didn't let their children play outside and gave them instructions to hide if someone came to do harm.
"It's something you shouldn't have to tell a 13- or 14-year-old," Suckoll said.
Suckoll and Deam were once friendly business partners who started Dirty Deeds early last year. The pair had met in church, and after accompanying Deam on some bounty hunts, Suckoll agreed to go into business with him, Suckoll said.
Things started to go south after Suckoll, then 34, went to El Salvador in October with two employees of his pest control business, Erick Lippincott and Mark Pruter. They planned to pick up Julio Nerio, who had skipped bail to avoid charges of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old North Las Vegas boy.
Deam said he arranged the pickup with local authorities in San Salvador, the country's capital, and U.S. diplomats. The operation went flawlessly at first. The local police helped find Nerio, who agreed to return to the United States with the Americans.
When they got to the airport, however, Nerio was denied a plane ticket because he didn't have a passport. Then Salvadoran authorities got involved and accused the Americans of kidnapping Nerio.
The police handcuffed the men and paraded them in front of television news cameras as they hauled them to jail. The Americans spent two weeks in a squalid jail cell before bailing out and living in a house while awaiting trial.
They faced up to six years in prison.
At the time, Deam vowed to do anything he could to get them released, but Suckoll said Deam paid only a fraction of their legal costs. And while Suckoll was in El Salvador, Deam accused him of trying to steal from the company, removed his name from corporate documents and blocked access to the company bank account, Suckoll said.
Suckoll sued Deam in February, saying he was booted from the company illegally. In his court filing, Suckoll also accused Deam of forging his signature to write bail bonds while Suckoll was in Central America. Suckoll said Deam couldn't write bonds because he had a history of not paying the courts when his clients skipped bail. Deam faces a hearing next month with the Nevada Division of Insurance because of the forgeries, Suckoll said.
Suckoll believes he might have been targeted so that Deam could end the civil lawsuit and avoid any punishment by the Division of Insurance. Suckoll even wonders whether the entire El Salvador operation was a set-up to get rid of him.
Suckoll noted the "Scarface" movie posters that once hung on the walls of Deam's office.
"He really thinks he's Scarface," he said.
Deam was scheduled for an initial court appearance this morning. Meanwhile he was being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.
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professional sounding name like "dirty deeds bail bonds" 