Speaker 1: The pressure was on Las Crusis police to solve what
Speaker 1: was called the worst killing in twenty years.
Speaker 2: We never had a case where three people have been killed,
Speaker 2: all in one home and all at one time.
Speaker 1: For Prosecutor Amy Orlando, the unsolved case shattered this safe
Speaker 1: and affluent community.
Speaker 2: People were concerned and they were fearful. That was something
Speaker 2: very unusual for our community.
Speaker 1: But the suspect would turn the police's investigation inside out.
Speaker 3: These guys think they're their gods was power. Well, I'm
Speaker 3: not a god, but I have powers of a god,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to show them what the powers are.
Speaker 1: Today, we're back in the remote hills of Las Cruces,
Speaker 1: New Mexico, for the conclusion of Murder in the Desert.
Speaker 1: I'm Sloan Glass and this is American Homicide. The views
Speaker 1: and opinions expressed are solely those of the individuals participating.
Speaker 1: This podcast also contained subject matter which may not be
Speaker 1: suitable for all audiences. Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: New Mexico is an odd state because if you go
Speaker 2: up to northern New Mexico, you're going to just see
Speaker 2: a lot more museums and a lot of art. And
Speaker 2: then you get down south and We're still kind of
Speaker 2: slow moving here.
Speaker 1: Los cruzz is where Ami Orlando started her nineteen year
Speaker 1: career as a prosecutor.
Speaker 2: We don't honk it people a lot when they're going
Speaker 2: the wrong way, you're going too slow. I like to
Speaker 2: think we're a little bit more friendly. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of ranchers and farmers here, and then we have
Speaker 2: I think five or six Starbucks, and so I think
Speaker 2: that tells you kind of size of what we.
Speaker 1: Are actually lost. Cruisez is a city of one hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: but those who live there say it feels like a
Speaker 1: small town.
Speaker 2: I like that it feels safe and that we lock
Speaker 2: our doors, but you can still walk around at night.
Speaker 2: You don't feel like you just have to rush to
Speaker 2: your car when you're leaving the mall. We have our crime,
Speaker 2: but we have great law enforcement, and it just feels
Speaker 2: like it's still safe.
Speaker 1: That safe feeling was shattered in twenty ten following the
Speaker 1: triple murder of Jill and Helga Delile and Peter wife.
Speaker 2: This was the biggest homicide that we had had since
Speaker 2: the eighties, and trust me, as the prosecutor leading kind
Speaker 2: of the legal part of it and working with law enforcement,
Speaker 2: we all foult that stress because we did not want
Speaker 2: to be, you know, the group that went down to
Speaker 2: not solve a triple homicide, which was our biggest case
Speaker 2: of that nature in Las Cruses.
Speaker 1: As the months passed, it appeared from the outside that
Speaker 1: the investigation had stalled, but the reality was very different.
Speaker 2: We narrowed in on kind of one suspect and his
Speaker 2: name was Gino Ferry.
Speaker 1: Gino Ferry was a contractor who did some business with
Speaker 1: the victims, but the deal went south after Gino's tap
Speaker 1: climbed above one million dollars. Jill sued him, but Gino
Speaker 1: filed for bankruptcy. A lengthy court battle ensued the day
Speaker 1: before the conclusion of that trial. Jill, his wife Helga,
Speaker 1: and his business partner Peter whythe were murdered.
Speaker 2: Gino claims he had an alibi and had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with it, and so we knew we had to
Speaker 2: prove it.
Speaker 1: By the spring of twenty eleven, nearly a year after
Speaker 1: the murders, a witness named Ricky Huckabee began cooperating with investigators.
Speaker 1: Ricky was a convicted felon who served ten years in
Speaker 1: prison and later did some odd jobs with Gino including
Speaker 1: driving Gino to the Delio's house on the day of
Speaker 1: the murders.
Speaker 2: He tells us the events that happened up to the
Speaker 2: killing of the victims.
Speaker 1: There was no question Ricky was afraid of Gino, so
Speaker 1: the police offer to protect him. In return, Ricky would
Speaker 1: record his conversations with Gino. But getting Gino to talk
Speaker 1: freely about murdering three people wasn't easy.
Speaker 2: So Miss Tugby I think was getting a little frustrated
Speaker 2: with Gino because he always talking circles. He knew what
Speaker 2: to say without saying anything we tell him. You just
Speaker 2: got to try and get him to talk about it.
Speaker 2: But you can't put words in his mouth. But you
Speaker 2: got to get him to talk about it.
Speaker 1: One afternoon, Ricky found a way.
Speaker 2: There's one point in the investigation where he said to Gino, well,
Speaker 2: would you really do it again? Would you do anything different?
Speaker 2: And Gino said to him, yes, I would do it again.
Speaker 1: As open and shot of a confession as that seems,
Speaker 1: it still wasn't enough for the DA. They were still
Speaker 1: building their case. That became a familiar refrain to Detective
Speaker 1: Robin Glickovic.
Speaker 4: We were frustrated. It was already almost a year, we're
Speaker 4: still gathering evidence. We want to put this guy away.
Speaker 4: We know for a fact that he killed these people,
Speaker 4: but yet he's still walking the streets, our streets and
Speaker 4: our community where our families live, and he's dangerous and
Speaker 4: to the point where we as detectives have to take
Speaker 4: different routes home because he knows where we live.
Speaker 1: Investigators started looking over their shoulders because Gino seemed to
Speaker 1: be watching them.
Speaker 4: He was a type of individual that thought he was
Speaker 4: smarter on everybody and he could get away with anything
Speaker 4: that he did, and we needed to keep an eye
Speaker 4: on him to prevent other crimes from happening, and had
Speaker 4: to prevent him from leaving town. Mexico's right there, and
Speaker 4: he had the money to leave.
Speaker 1: At one point, Detective's place what's called a bird dog
Speaker 1: or a GPS tracker on Gino's vehicle. That same day,
Speaker 1: something unsettling happened.
Speaker 4: We went back to the Sheriff's department, did a briefing.
Speaker 4: Then Gino Ferry was parked across the street and just
Speaker 4: sitting there. It was almost like he was conducting his
Speaker 4: own surveillance on us, and he had the mentality of
Speaker 4: like he was like the Godfather.
Speaker 1: You know, I know this sounds more and more like
Speaker 1: a movie plot, but it wasn't. These were real cops
Speaker 1: in New Mexico trying to put this guy away, all
Speaker 1: while looking over their shoulders and worrying about their loved
Speaker 1: one safety. But if they arrested Geno now without a
Speaker 1: formal charge, there would be nothing keeping him in police custody.
Speaker 4: And from that point we almost took a different path
Speaker 4: on getting Geno.
Speaker 1: Ferry authorities went after Gino the same way law enforcement
Speaker 1: took down old school gangsters like al Capone.
Speaker 4: Okay, if we can't get him on the homicide right now,
Speaker 4: let's get him on a white collar crime.
Speaker 1: Detectives knew that Gino had gone through bankruptcy proceedings and
Speaker 1: in digging deeper, he had just gotten divorced. Police took
Speaker 1: that information and connected it to a tip that Ricky
Speaker 1: Huckabee provided. He said that Gino had a bunch of
Speaker 1: storage units where he hit property and assets from the courts,
Speaker 1: which is against the law.
Speaker 4: He had cars at one point, he had preschool stuff
Speaker 4: like chairs and desks and stuff.
Speaker 1: But more than just preschool furniture turned up.
Speaker 4: We found over one hundred guns in multiple large safes
Speaker 4: that belonged to Geno.
Speaker 1: The detectives must have been thrilled. This was the breakthrough
Speaker 1: they were looking for. But none of the guns matched
Speaker 1: up with the bullets found at the crime scene. But
Speaker 1: then something odd happened. When detectives opened the door to
Speaker 1: another of the storage units. They were speechless.
Speaker 4: We found over five hundred animals like exotic animals like lions, tigers,
Speaker 4: full size animals, bears, deer, elk, rhinos.
Speaker 1: Just to be clear, these animals weren't alive. They were
Speaker 1: stuffed and mounted. Not to mention some of them were
Speaker 1: endangered species.
Speaker 4: He claimed he was going to use the animals for
Speaker 4: a museum here in Las Crusis. In my career, I've
Speaker 4: never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: These hundreds of stuffed, life size animals that Gino had
Speaker 1: hidden were valued at and get this, one point two
Speaker 1: five million dollars, and hiding those assets from the courts
Speaker 1: is a crime known as possession of encumbered property.
Speaker 4: We can get this guy, we can get him off
Speaker 4: the streets. So using the white collar crime to get
Speaker 4: him off the streets was the way we needed to go,
Speaker 4: so we could actually take our time on the homicide
Speaker 4: and get everything that we needed to make sure it
Speaker 4: was a solid case so he would not get out.
Speaker 1: On April eighth, twenty twelve, police went to the DA
Speaker 1: to state their case. They had Geno's tape confession to
Speaker 1: Ricky Huckabee. They also had him on encumbered property. Plus
Speaker 1: there was the growing fear that Gino was stalking them
Speaker 1: and could retaliate.
Speaker 4: He's a scary guy, and we don't want that kind
Speaker 4: of person in our community.
Speaker 1: This time, the district attorney had a change of heart.
Speaker 4: He gave me the green light. You have enough to
Speaker 4: make an arrest on this guy.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of days, shy of the one year
Speaker 1: mark of the murders, detectives finally got a warrant for
Speaker 1: Geno Faery's arrest.
Speaker 4: I was super excited, super nervous, super anxious, and then
Speaker 4: I get a phone call saying we're tracking him. He's
Speaker 4: a leaving town.
Speaker 1: The GPS tracker on Gino's vehicle showed Gino heading south
Speaker 1: for the border.
Speaker 5: We thought that somehow he had found out that we
Speaker 5: were about to charge him, and we think he's fleeing.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Joe Renaut knew Gino had a second home in Mexico.
Speaker 5: And so we did not want him to hide down
Speaker 5: there because he had the funds. We believed he had
Speaker 5: money stashed and other items possibly that he could turn
Speaker 5: over for money.
Speaker 1: Aside from a lengthy extradition process, the authorities had other fears.
Speaker 5: You had tons of guns, long range rifles and stuff
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 1: And the race to catch Geno Faery on.
Speaker 4: That day was very intense.
Speaker 1: I ten is the highway from Las cruzz that leads
Speaker 1: to Mexico. That afternoon, it quickly filled with squad cars
Speaker 1: heading south.
Speaker 4: We have other units, other detectives going. Everybody is just
Speaker 4: anxious about getting this guy.
Speaker 1: Authorities believe they could catch Gino just north of the
Speaker 1: border in El Paso, which is about forty five miles away.
Speaker 4: We tracked them through GPS on a laptop.
Speaker 1: The birddog they placed on Gino's vehicle allowed them to
Speaker 1: follow his every move.
Speaker 4: It's about a forty five minute drive depending on traffic,
Speaker 4: and doing over one hundred miles an hour. It took
Speaker 4: us about twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Finally, the string of cop cars caught up with Gino's
Speaker 1: vehicle in El Paso. That's where they were joined by
Speaker 1: El Paso police and the swat team.
Speaker 4: We get to Al Paso. We're in communication with El
Speaker 4: Paso Police Department. He's here at this location. He's at
Speaker 4: this intersection.
Speaker 1: Investigators watched as Gino pulled into a parking lot in
Speaker 1: a secluded area and we.
Speaker 4: Call him and like move now, move now, and so
Speaker 4: Apasto PDI. We all move in on him as he's
Speaker 4: getting out of the vehicle and we're able to get
Speaker 4: him right there at the vehicle.
Speaker 1: Police arrested Geno Faerry without incident and charged him with
Speaker 1: concealing and encumbered property.
Speaker 4: They take him to Al Paso Sheriff's department and we
Speaker 4: go up there to see if he will give us
Speaker 4: a statement, and of course he said he didn't want.
Speaker 2: To talk to us.
Speaker 1: Even with Geno in custody, the police had work to do.
Speaker 4: It's not over. We still needed the murder weapon. And
Speaker 4: once we put him in jail, Ricky Huckaby was just like, okay,
Speaker 4: let's talk.
Speaker 1: Did Ricky Huckaby, the man who told police he drove
Speaker 1: Geno Ferry to the Delios home the day they were murdered,
Speaker 1: no more than he was letting on And if he did,
Speaker 1: what was he holding back detectives were to find out.
Speaker 1: Police charged Geno Faerry with concealing and comfort property and
Speaker 1: they believed he was also responsible for the murders of
Speaker 1: Jill and Helga Delia and Peter Wife. For Sergeant Renault
Speaker 1: and his team to charge Geno for those crimes, they
Speaker 1: needed to find the murder weapon.
Speaker 5: The crime lab calls us, and they did, in fact
Speaker 5: confirm that all three were killed with a nine milimeter handgun,
Speaker 5: which was an oozy type weapon which leaves very distinctive marks.
Speaker 5: We eventually discovered that Gino owned a weapon like this.
Speaker 1: That information came courtesy of their informant, Ricky Huckabee. With
Speaker 1: Gino now behind bars, Ricky seemed more at ease and
Speaker 1: revealed some additional information about what happened after the murders
Speaker 1: when Gino went to a public bathroom at a park
Speaker 1: to change his clothes.
Speaker 5: Ricky remembered that when Gino had arrived back at the
Speaker 5: park where they had planned to meet, Gino had gone
Speaker 5: into the portable outdoor bathroom latrine and he walked in
Speaker 5: with a buffel bag, and he walked out without the bag,
Speaker 5: and as soon as he got back in the car,
Speaker 5: he looked at Ricky and said, man, I think I
Speaker 5: just woke up. And as time went on, and as
Speaker 5: we started to work together, he started to realize, you know,
Speaker 5: I think maybe the gun's in there.
Speaker 1: So if Gino did dispose of his murder weapon in
Speaker 1: that park outhouse, the chances of finding a gun in
Speaker 1: an outhouse toilet a year later we're slim to night.
Speaker 1: But for Sergeant Renault, it was worth a look.
Speaker 5: And I said, shine a light down that dang toilet,
Speaker 5: please and tell me what you see. He calls me back,
Speaker 5: He says, I see a lot of crap. And I said, well,
Speaker 5: what else do you see? He says, I see a gun.
Speaker 5: It looks like an oozy. It's literally half a mile
Speaker 5: from our department. I hauled by there and I looked
Speaker 5: in the toilet. Sure enough, there it was just laying there,
Speaker 5: straight down.
Speaker 1: On the bottom of the outhouse toilet sat the murder weapon.
Speaker 5: This gun's been sitting in this toilet for a year.
Speaker 5: It was rusty, it was it had stuff all over it.
Speaker 1: So who was going to fish the gun out of
Speaker 1: that toilet?
Speaker 5: I got the honors of dropping a magnet down and
Speaker 5: getting it. Because nobody wanted to go in there and
Speaker 5: the magnet was able to pick it up and we
Speaker 5: pulled it up and that was the most disgusting piece
Speaker 5: of evidence I have ever recovered in my career. And
Speaker 5: we put it in a box. I had to let
Speaker 5: it air dry, and from there it went to the
Speaker 5: crime lab. I thought there was no way this gun
Speaker 5: is going to fire again. The lab did what they
Speaker 5: do and they called us two weeks later and said
Speaker 5: it's a match. That was just incredible.
Speaker 1: Twelve days after being arrested in Alpaso, and just a
Speaker 1: year after the Tripple homicide, authorities were finally able to
Speaker 1: charge Geno Ferry with three counts of first degree murder,
Speaker 1: we held.
Speaker 5: A news conference and they wanted, you know, all the
Speaker 5: investigators up there behind me. They asked me, were you
Speaker 5: afraid of Gino? And I said, yeah, we all were.
Speaker 1: You Rarely hear cops get emotional, but talking about the
Speaker 1: threat that you know was to the public and to
Speaker 1: law enforcement struck a nerve for Sergeant Renault.
Speaker 6: We knew what he was capable of, and we knew
Speaker 6: that you could get within one hundred yards of every
Speaker 6: entrance at our Sheriff's department, and he had guns and
Speaker 6: we believed he still had guns that were capable of
Speaker 6: hitting their mark, and he was very familiar with all
Speaker 6: types of weapons, and it was just something that was
Speaker 6: within his mentality pull off.
Speaker 1: That afternoon, Sergeant Renaud proudly stood with his team of
Speaker 1: investigators to announce Gino's arrest.
Speaker 7: Mister Fetti was the initial person of interest based on
Speaker 7: the information that we initially got that he was a
Speaker 7: defendant in civil litigation filed by Jial Delile against him,
Speaker 7: and then when the Deliles did not show up for
Speaker 7: the final court hearing on that the day their bodies
Speaker 7: were discovered, that was the first place we went.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Amy Orlando also spoke at that press conference and
Speaker 1: shared what Gino told Ricky Huckabee right after the murders.
Speaker 2: The defendant made the remark that what he did at
Speaker 2: the Deliles home it felt good to him.
Speaker 1: In May twenty thirteen, two years after his arrest, Gino's
Speaker 1: case finally went to trial. Just as it was about
Speaker 1: to begin, more threats came from Gino.
Speaker 2: One of the good things that is a law enforcement
Speaker 2: tools were able to listen in on phone calls that
Speaker 2: happened at the gym. Well, he started to make threats
Speaker 2: saying he was going to take somebody out during the trial.
Speaker 2: He was going to do it in front of the jury.
Speaker 2: It was going to be on camera.
Speaker 3: I will get my vengeance when I get out of here.
Speaker 3: That's all that counts. Okay, they've kicked me in the
Speaker 3: time to do some kicking myself. This is both between
Speaker 3: these cops that's idiot and all these other guys that
Speaker 3: are coming after me. These guys think they're gods with
Speaker 3: a power. Well, I'm not a god, but I have
Speaker 3: powers of a god, and I'm going to show them
Speaker 3: what the powers are.
Speaker 2: And so we had to have the bomb dogs come.
Speaker 2: We had snipers on the roof every day and lunch break,
Speaker 2: any break, they combed the courthouse with the dogs. There
Speaker 2: was extra security in the courtroom. In fact, we were
Speaker 2: told by the judge if we wanted to that as
Speaker 2: the attorneys, we all had the right to wear like
Speaker 2: a bulletproof vest under our clothes.
Speaker 3: They locked me up to the should and they don't
Speaker 3: expect me to have feelings. They don't expect me to
Speaker 3: be angry for something I haven't done. Unto them all,
Speaker 3: let us have a war. When I get out of here.
Speaker 3: I don't believe in the government, the county, city, state,
Speaker 3: federal anything, this government themselves.
Speaker 2: Everyone was just on heightened alert.
Speaker 1: Were Gino's threats real or was it just another way
Speaker 1: to intimidate his latest foe.
Speaker 2: I mean, he had killed three people, so no doubt
Speaker 2: he's evil and he's dangerous. But you just can't let
Speaker 2: that get to you, or you'd be preoccupied with it.
Speaker 1: Even with the extra security. Came another threat.
Speaker 5: We uncovered a plot to kill Ricky Hukaby, a legitimate
Speaker 5: plot with a known cartel.
Speaker 1: Ricky Huckabee was the prosecution star witness and this plot
Speaker 1: to assassinate him led Sergeant Renaud to personally escort him
Speaker 1: in and out of the courthouse.
Speaker 5: And I haven't seen that done that much security for
Speaker 5: a case.
Speaker 1: For his protection, Ricky was even moved down to the state,
Speaker 1: But Gino's lawyer, Gary Mitchell, believed these threats were all
Speaker 1: taken out of context.
Speaker 8: They tried to exploit everything they could about Gino's profile.
Speaker 8: The way he talks and his A type personality profiles
Speaker 8: him as somebody who, well, this is a gangster kind
Speaker 8: of guy that will do whatever to get whatever, and
Speaker 8: that profiles him it's wrong to profile him that way.
Speaker 8: For Gino, it was sort of funny. I mean, he
Speaker 8: just said, okay, why not. Surprise was a popular show.
Speaker 8: He can act like he's from New Jersey, and he
Speaker 8: can act like a tough guy.
Speaker 9: That's the way people saw him. He could fit in
Speaker 9: and have fun with it.
Speaker 1: Tough guy. Gino fairy gritted his teeth as Ricky walked
Speaker 1: to the witness stand wearing a bulletproof vest. The judge
Speaker 1: even ordered photographers not to take pictures of Ricky's face
Speaker 1: in order to protect him. On the witness stand, Ricky,
Speaker 1: how could be, testified that Gino confessed to him. According
Speaker 1: to Ricky, Gino used to key to get inside the
Speaker 1: Delia's house and woar a mask and Rubbert gloves. When
Speaker 1: Jill Delile first arrived, Gino shot him repeatedly. A short
Speaker 1: time later, Peter wife unexpectedly showed up. Gino grabbed him
Speaker 1: by the back of the head, and then forced him
Speaker 1: into a bathroom shower, where he shot him. When Helga arrived,
Speaker 1: Gino shot her once in the back of the neck.
Speaker 1: Ricky testified that he kept quiet because Gino threatened him,
Speaker 1: and that's why he originally didn't want to cooperate with investigators.
Speaker 1: It was damning testimony against Gino, although his lawyer thought otherwise.
Speaker 1: Here's Gary Mitchell again.
Speaker 8: I think this idea that Rick Hockaby says it Gino
Speaker 8: confessed to him is a bunch of nonsense. I don't
Speaker 8: think Geno confessed to him. It's not even his nature
Speaker 8: to go confess to somebody like that. I think that's
Speaker 8: just Rick Hocklebee, as I said to the jury, trying
Speaker 8: to protect himself, point a finger at Gino and help
Speaker 8: the state out, and realizing, well, the state now has
Speaker 8: all the power. My friend, whom I really liked because
Speaker 8: he took care of me and helped me out in
Speaker 8: this sort of thing, no longer has the power in
Speaker 8: the state has the power.
Speaker 9: So I'm going to go with the state.
Speaker 1: Along with calling Ricky Huckaby a liar, Gino's attorney argued
Speaker 1: that Gino wasn't the killer because he couldn't be in
Speaker 1: two places at once.
Speaker 9: We had an alibi.
Speaker 8: Depending on the time you're talking about, he was either
Speaker 8: eating a meal or he was lisiting with a friend
Speaker 8: that he had of here.
Speaker 1: When clients face murder charges, most lawyers try to keep
Speaker 1: them off the witness stand, But when you have an
Speaker 1: ego as big as Gino's, there was no keeping him
Speaker 1: from testifying. Gino emphatically denied confessing to Ricky Huckaby. He
Speaker 1: testified that during that four thirty to six thirty PM
Speaker 1: window when the murders happened, he was at a friend's
Speaker 1: house and then grabbed a hot astronomy sandwich from a deli.
Speaker 1: He even had a receipt timestamped six h nine PM
Speaker 1: that backed up his story.
Speaker 8: Our sandwich receipts showed that it was impossible for him
Speaker 8: to have.
Speaker 1: Done this, but prosecutor said not so fast. The owner
Speaker 1: of that deli where Gino was said to be at
Speaker 1: six oh nine pm testified that the clocks on his
Speaker 1: cash register were wrong. They were an hour behind because
Speaker 1: they hadn't been adjusted for daylight savings time that would
Speaker 1: put Gino at the deli at seven oh nine pm.
Speaker 1: A deli employee even testified that Gino left the deli
Speaker 1: around seven forty five pm.
Speaker 8: It was a neat argument as the state made, which
Speaker 8: made our defense a lot weaker because they threw out
Speaker 8: this suggestion to the Jerry that we didn't have a
Speaker 8: correct time, that we were an hour earlier, an hour late.
Speaker 1: And remember how Gino said he was with a friend
Speaker 1: at the time of the murders. Well, Gino's friend testified
Speaker 1: that Gino called him on his way over sometime around
Speaker 1: five pm, but Gino's phone records showed no such phone call.
Speaker 1: That visit with his friend was something new to prosecutor
Speaker 1: in you Orlando. She asked Gino why he failed to
Speaker 1: mention his visit when he first talked with investigators. Gino
Speaker 1: muttered that he simply forgot. The judge had to tell
Speaker 1: the usually brash and boysters Geno to speak up because
Speaker 1: he was speaking so quietly.
Speaker 2: He turned his back to me, to the point that
Speaker 2: the judge had to call his defense counsel up to say,
Speaker 2: that's not really effective. The jury isn't going to like that.
Speaker 2: And his defense attorney was like, I can't control him.
Speaker 2: The judge had to order him to turn around.
Speaker 1: Gino later admitted to lying under oath during previous hearings
Speaker 1: for divorce and bankruptcy. He proudly said, I'll lie to
Speaker 1: protect what's not right.
Speaker 2: I knew that I was getting under his skin, which
Speaker 2: I mean just affirms that one that I'm right, meaning
Speaker 2: that we had the right person, and that you have
Speaker 2: no doubt, and the fact that he was trying to
Speaker 2: control even that situation and I wasn't going to let
Speaker 2: him control it.
Speaker 1: From day one, prosecutors focused on Gino Faery. This was
Speaker 1: something that his defense attorney pointed out to the jury.
Speaker 8: There could have been any number of people, and I
Speaker 8: wanted the jury to take a good hard look at
Speaker 8: that and say, listen, I mean, just because the district
Speaker 8: attorney selects this one person doesn't necessarily mean these others
Speaker 8: should be off the hook. And we in fact argued
Speaker 8: during the case that there were other people that were
Speaker 8: around that could easily have done this.
Speaker 1: Ju Julia was not only a businessman but also an inventor.
Speaker 1: At the time of his death, he was negotiating the
Speaker 1: sale of another invention, something said to extend gas mileage
Speaker 1: by thirty percent. The proceeds of the sale would have
Speaker 1: gone to charity, but just before the sale, two of
Speaker 1: his partners involved in the invention mysteriously died. One was
Speaker 1: poisoned and the other fell off a ladder while repairing
Speaker 1: his roof.
Speaker 8: There were a lot of people that could have done this.
Speaker 8: Other than Geno. Here's the bottom line. You screw with
Speaker 8: people from a business sense to the point that you've
Speaker 8: bankrupt him, to the point that you take everything away
Speaker 8: from them, and you think, in this day and age, people,
Speaker 8: I AM going to get upset over that kind of stuff.
Speaker 8: You know, those chickens come home the roost after a while.
Speaker 1: Gino's defense team wanted the jury to know that someone
Speaker 1: else had a motive.
Speaker 8: At the end of the day, it was a tough,
Speaker 8: hard nosed tried case in which the lawyers brought out
Speaker 8: everything that they could and jurors are left with jumping
Speaker 8: to one conclusion or the other.
Speaker 2: The worst part for a prosecutor is when the jury
Speaker 2: leaves the courtroom to deliberate because there's absolutely nothing else
Speaker 2: we can do.
Speaker 1: Just before noon that day, the jury began deliberations and
Speaker 1: lawyers prepared for a long night of waiting.
Speaker 2: It was nerve wracking because you never know what a
Speaker 2: jury's going to believe.
Speaker 1: The trial of legendary nineteenth century outlaw Billy the Kid
Speaker 1: happened just south of where Gino Ferry now awaited his fate.
Speaker 1: He heard six days worth of testimony and saw nearly
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty pieces of evidence under a heavy
Speaker 1: blanket of security. Thanks to a number of threats, I.
Speaker 5: Was authorized to do whatever it took to secure that courthouse.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Joe Renault not only investigated the case, but oversaw
Speaker 1: courtroom security.
Speaker 5: We had undercover agents inside the courtroom, undercover agents outside
Speaker 5: the courtroom, cameras rolling, We had snipers. We had Ricky
Speaker 5: Huckaby in a bulletproof vest, and we didn't take any chances.
Speaker 1: Ricky Huckabee was the prosecution's key witness, but there were
Speaker 1: fears he wouldn't make it into the courthouse alive.
Speaker 5: We had verified information of a planned assassination attempt at
Speaker 5: Ricky Huckabee.
Speaker 1: Although there were no incidents during the trial, additional law
Speaker 1: enforcement joined to the already packed courtroom once the jury
Speaker 1: returned with a verdict, and although the lawyers were expecting
Speaker 1: a long wait, the jury returned with their answer relative quickly.
Speaker 2: Normally, when it's a long trial, they deliberate for a
Speaker 2: long period of time.
Speaker 1: The fact that they deliberated for just two and a
Speaker 1: half hours stuck out to Prosecutor Amy Orlando.
Speaker 2: So when they came back quickly, it's always an uneasy
Speaker 2: feeling it's obviously they're a good sign or bad.
Speaker 1: Defense attorney Gary Mitchell read a little deeper into the
Speaker 1: jury short deliberation.
Speaker 9: It wasn't days later that it came in.
Speaker 8: It was hours, and I told Gina, you know, it's
Speaker 8: not long enough to have an acquittal, so prepare yourself.
Speaker 1: On the three counts of first supree murder, the jury
Speaker 1: found Geno Fairy guilty. From the back of the courthouse
Speaker 1: came a scream. It was Gino's mother. An undercover agent
Speaker 1: stood behind her just in case she started any trouble,
Speaker 1: but nothing happened.
Speaker 2: It was a relief because it had taken us two
Speaker 2: three years to get to trial and finally to be
Speaker 2: able to give the victims some closure, even though they're deceased,
Speaker 2: but to know who killed them, and then to give
Speaker 2: the survivors around them and our community that Gino was
Speaker 2: never going to be on the street again.
Speaker 1: The judge sentence Gino Ferry to three life sentences. He
Speaker 1: was fifty years old at the time of the sentencing
Speaker 1: and won't be eligible for parole for ninety years. Gino
Speaker 1: didn't utter a word. He just stood there emotionless while
Speaker 1: prosecutors embraced one another and celebrated their victory.
Speaker 2: We knew that we had the right person in jail
Speaker 2: and charged with the crimes.
Speaker 5: There's TV shows out there that's say, if a murders
Speaker 5: not solid in forty eight hours, most likely it will
Speaker 5: never be solved. So when this verdict was read on Geno,
Speaker 5: that's blown away.
Speaker 1: For Sergeant Renaud, the long, complicated and dangerous case was
Speaker 1: finally over, and it featured many firsts.
Speaker 5: I would tell these guys in the investigative team, watch
Speaker 5: your back, don't take the same route home every time,
Speaker 5: don't eat at the same restaurants every day. Tell your
Speaker 5: girlfriends to be careful. First time I've ever had to
Speaker 5: do that in my career. With all the homicides I worked,
Speaker 5: all the officer involved shootings I've worked, and never in
Speaker 5: my wildest dreams what I have to tell cops to
Speaker 5: be super extra careful and protect their families. Because Gina
Speaker 5: was just a hot head. He was a hothead, and
Speaker 5: if you said the wrong thing, it pressed a button
Speaker 5: and the fuse was lit.
Speaker 1: Gina's defense attorney believed the jurors had made up their
Speaker 1: minds long before his closing arguments.
Speaker 8: They jumped pretty quick to that one conclusion because primarily
Speaker 8: that gun business.
Speaker 9: And here's the big thing that you overset it, don't.
Speaker 8: Trial the number of homicides involved. I mean, excuse me,
Speaker 8: this was this was not a single homicide. This looked
Speaker 8: like somebody had gotten angry about something. So it all
Speaker 8: sort of fit in to point the finger at Gino.
Speaker 1: He believes that Ricky Huckabee was responsible for the triple murders.
Speaker 8: Rick Huckabye walked away from this case. Interesting, isn't it
Speaker 8: that he walks away? You know, I think a lot
Speaker 8: more of the seven is pointing toward Rick huckaby than
Speaker 8: my client. But I'm not the prosecuting attorney and I'm
Speaker 8: not the investigating police departments.
Speaker 1: Ricky Huckabee drove Gino to the Delio's house and even
Speaker 1: called the house well, Gino was there, killing Jill Helga
Speaker 1: and Peter. Ricky was never charged, but Sergeant Renault understands
Speaker 1: why people believe he could have been connected to the murders.
Speaker 5: Could he have been more knowledgeable than what he let on?
Speaker 9: Sure?
Speaker 5: You know, they could have hashed us out and said
Speaker 5: I'm going to go over there and I'm going to
Speaker 5: kill these people. And this is our plan, but we
Speaker 5: never got any evidence to support that. I honestly truly
Speaker 5: believe Ricky Huckabye is a decent person and did the
Speaker 5: right thing and took great courage to do what he did.
Speaker 5: Huge courage. Ricky Huckabee wherever he is now, and he's
Speaker 5: still in danger. He is absolutely still in danger. I
Speaker 5: don't know where he's at. I wish him well.
Speaker 1: New Mexico state law automatically triggers an appeal for anyone
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison. In twenty fifteen, the New
Speaker 1: Mexico Supreme Court upheld Gino's conviction. He will be eligible
Speaker 1: for parole when he is one hundred and forty two
Speaker 1: years old. With Gino now behind bars for life, the
Speaker 1: city of Las Cruces slowly returned to being that safe, small,
Speaker 1: tight knit city, sometimes too small for Sergeant Renault.
Speaker 5: And how small of a world it is that we
Speaker 5: hear My daughter was playing soccer for a local high
Speaker 5: school and an incoming freshman stood up and said, my
Speaker 5: dad is in prison for killing people, and happened to
Speaker 5: be Gino's daughter. And you know, that's how small a
Speaker 5: town this is. Gino has a son and a daughter
Speaker 5: and they've turned out to be great.
Speaker 1: People, but Gino Fairy would never be done. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: Gino filed a civil lawsuit against the New Mexico Department
Speaker 1: of Corrections. He alleged that his constitutional rights were violated
Speaker 1: following what's known as a facility shakedown. That's when prisoners
Speaker 1: place their belongings in a bin and items that don't
Speaker 1: fit in that bin are sent to the prisoners home.
Speaker 1: In his one hundred and thirty three page complaint, he
Speaker 1: voiced his anger that some clothing and four DOUAA batteries
Speaker 1: were taken from him. He demanded the prison provide him
Speaker 1: with a desk and called out one of the guards
Speaker 1: for being a quote narcissist. In twenty twenty, I judge
Speaker 1: dismissed his suit. Today, Gino remains in a medium security
Speaker 1: prison in New Mexico.
Speaker 10: We got the son of a bitch. That's the only
Speaker 10: thing that mattered to me.
Speaker 1: For Jill's friend and neighbor, Bob Senecal, he still holds
Speaker 1: onto his anchor.
Speaker 10: I know they don't have the death penalty in the state,
Speaker 10: but he's gone for the rest of his natural life,
Speaker 10: and I'm he deserves it, and I for one hope
Speaker 10: he rots in hell.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty eleven, nearly a year after the triple murders,
Speaker 1: Bob wrote a letter to the editor that was critical
Speaker 1: of law enforcement's handling of the case.
Speaker 10: A week later, they arrested Geno. So I had it
Speaker 10: write up make Kulpa saying I'm glad you guys did
Speaker 10: your job, and I'm sorry I tried to rat you out.
Speaker 1: In the end, Bob believes it all boils down to
Speaker 1: one thing.
Speaker 10: There are a lot of good people in this world,
Speaker 10: and there are some bad people in this world, and
Speaker 10: as long as the good people try to keep the
Speaker 10: bad people under control, we're going.
Speaker 9: To be okay.
Speaker 1: During those months following the murders, an outlaw named Gino
Speaker 1: Faery continued to walk the streets of Las Crusees. It
Speaker 1: was something that scared Ricky Huckabee and even law enforcement,
Speaker 1: but for Bob Senecal, he actually hoped he would run
Speaker 1: into Gino.
Speaker 10: I kept my twelve gauge under my bed because I
Speaker 10: was just praying he'd come and talk to me.
Speaker 1: Next time. On American Homicide, a beaten and bruised woman
Speaker 1: escapes her captor after a horrific ordeal As more details emerged,
Speaker 1: what police uncover would be much bigger than they ever imagined.
Speaker 1: I'm Sloan Glass. We'll make our final trip to New
Speaker 1: Mexico and head to Elephant Butte. That's next time on
Speaker 1: American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by
Speaker 1: emailing us at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: That's American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide
Speaker 1: is hosted and written by me Sloane Glass and is
Speaker 1: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
Speaker 1: by Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also
Speaker 1: written and produced by Todd Gans, with additional writing by
Speaker 1: Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our associate producer is Kristin Mlcurry.
Speaker 1: Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimechack. Audio
Speaker 1: editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support from
Speaker 1: Nico Ruka Tanner, Robbins, Britt Robashow, and Patrick Walsh. American
Speaker 1: Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Neiser
Speaker 1: Music Library, provided by my Music Follow American Homicide on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, and please rate and review American Homicide. Your
Speaker 1: five star review goes a long way towards helping others
Speaker 1: find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.