Leaked Grand Jury Testimony in the Case of Titus & Ryan!

[Echo]

Leaked Grand Jury Transcripts Reveal More Chilling Details

From the Las Vegas Review Journal: Glenn Puit

Kelly Ryan participated in the brutality that culminated in the death of her personal assistant by using a Taser gun on the victim, beating her and helping to inject the woman with a massive dose of morphine, Ryan's self-described best friend told a grand jury.

In her testimony to the grand jury that indicted Ryan and Ryan's husband, Craig Titus, on murder charges, Megan Pierson, 25, also said Titus demonstrated how he strangled 28-year-old Melissa James, according to the grand jury transcripts.

Pierson told the grand jury that she and her husband, Jeremy Foley, were at Ryan and Titus' southwest valley home on Dec. 13, the same day authorities suspect Titus and Ryan's live-in assistant was slain.

Pierson testified that Ryan told her that a confrontation had occurred between her and James at the home because she and Titus suspected James was stealing from them and was planning to steal their identities.

Ryan is a 33-year-old past Ms. Fitness America and Ms. Olympia runner-up, and Titus is a 40-year-old past place-winner of international Mr. Olympia competitions.

"They had gone into Melissa's room and found, opened up, a lock box that had credit cards, copies of credit cards, a (home equity line of credit) statement ... and copies of IDs," Pierson said.

She said Titus was especially angry at the discovery.

"Very, very pissed," Pierson said, adding that Titus said, "There is three things that you don't mess with. That's friends, family and his money."

Pierson said Ryan told her that during a confrontation with James, she had taken a Taser gun away from James, then used it on James.

"It, I guess, stunned her in the back of her neck, but she (Ryan) didn't have it up high enough, so it just kind of got her attention," Pierson told the grand jury.

"And Kelly tried to do it again, and she, I guess she didn't have the voltage up high enough, so she yelled for Craig, and Craig came upstairs, picked Melissa up, brought her downstairs into the living room and supposedly body slammed her (James) and started beating her up," Pierson testified.

Ryan told Pierson that after the beating, James "took a Xanax" and went to bed, Pierson said.

"While she was sleeping, Kelly went into her room and punched her in the face," Pierson said.

"She (Ryan) said that she punched her a couple of times, she showed me the marks on her knuckles from it, and she said that ... Craig was holding her down and told Kelly to get the morphine and she shot a whole needle of morphine into her leg," Pierson said. "She said she was very resilient because it didn't do anything to her."

Later that evening, Titus demonstrated to Pierson "how you can strangle somebody," and then he demonstrated a chokehold for Pierson.

"He did it on me, and you instantly stop breathing," Pierson said. "It scared me the way that he motioned, the way that he showed it on me.

"Craig just walked in and started talking about it and, that's how, he started talking more about how he said that he killed Melissa," Pierson said.

"He said that he was joking around, but that is how he had killed Melissa, by strangling her," Pierson said.

"I mean, he was laughing, so I really did not believe he was serious," she said.

Pierson said that Titus then mentioned James' body was in his wife's car and that Titus said he was going to drive the vehicle to Red Rock, "scatter clothes around the car and set it on fire and make it look like a rape."

Pierson's testified before the grand jury earlier this month, and the grand jury wound up indicting Ryan and Titus on charges of murder and arson in the death of James.

Twenty-three-year-old Anthony Gross is charged with being an accessory to the killing and with arson.

Authorities allege Titus and Ryan killed James, then burned her body in Ryan's Jaguar off state Route 160 in the desert outside of Las Vegas. The burning car was discovered Dec. 14.

Pierson said when she and her husband left the home of Titus and Ryan the night of Dec. 13, Titus gave the couple a gym bag.

"We said our goodbyes, and there was a gym bag next to my purse," Pierson said. "I grabbed my purse, walked out and Craig said, 'Hey, wait, you forgot this,' and I said 'What is this?'"

"He said, 'Oh, don't worry about it, I talked to Jeremy about it; he said it was OK to have it at your house for a couple of weeks,' " Pierson said.

"He said that he knew the police were going to be coming to his house the next day, and he acted like he just didn't want whatever was in the bag in the house while the police were there," Pierson said.

The following day, she said, she looked in the gym bag and saw "a Taser gun, a stun gun, a gym rope, and something else for one of the Taser guns or stun gun," Pierson said.

Pierson said she turned the items over to police, and according to grand jury transcripts, authorities found other physical evidence that corroborated Pierson's account.

An analysis of the Taser gun indicated it had been fired multiple times on the day James was slain, and Las Vegas police crime scene analysts found remnants from the discharge of a Taser gun inside Titus and Ryan's home.

Also, a medical examiner told the grand jury that James had a high level of morphine in her body at the time of her death.

When questioned by a prosecutor in front of the grand jury, Pierson admitted she did not tell police what she knew when first questioned by police because "at first I was protecting Kelly."

It was all "very upsetting," Pierson said. "It's very depressing. ... I thought I knew her better than this."

Pierson said she was frightened by Titus. Nevertheless, she agreed to meet with Titus and Ryan a few days after Dec. 13 at an acquaintance's house.

"Kelly was playing dumb, saying that 'they (police) think we did it,' and Craig said that they were going to go to Greece," Pierson said. "He said, 'It's no big deal. Kelly is going to continue to compete there, everything will be fine,' and he said he only needed two witnesses to say that she (James) was overdosed in the front seat of the car and that they'd get off."

Ryan's attorney, Tom Pitaro, declined to comment on the grand jury transcripts Tuesday because he had not read them yet.

Titus' defense attorney, Richard Schonfeld, declined to comment on the specifics of the transcripts, but he said the veracity of the evidence is expected to be challenged in District Court. He previously said that Titus' accusers have significant credibility problems.

Authorities allege that Titus and Ryan first told police they did not know what happened to James. They later said they found her dead of a drug overdose, then panicked and burned her body.

[Tre]

*gulp*

Did you hear that just now?

It's was the sound of their bubble bursting.

[The Dark Knight]

Those bastards deserve the electric chair!!

[amadgenius]

It is so amazing how at one moment people can be singing the praises of your name with a choir behind them. And then the next moment, they are yelling "Those bastards deserve the electric chair".

A wise man once said...the only difference between innocent people and criminals is "time".

You think about that!!....

Those bastards deserve the electric chair!!

[The Dark Knight]

It is so amazing how at one moment people can be singing the praises of your name with a choir behind them. And then the next moment, they are yelling "Those bastards deserve the electric chair".

A wise man once said...the only difference between innocent people and criminals is "time".

You think about that!!....

I take it you were a fan of tookie williams

[amadgenius]

No...I am a fan of Charles Manson...wtf?! Why do I have to be a fan of someone by my statement?

[Echo]

A wise man once said...the only difference between innocent people and criminals is "time".

You think about that!!....

Let me think about that.......Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan........"the only difference between innocent people and criminals is time." Hmmm. Sounds like lyrics from a rap tune. By the way, who was the "wise man" that you attribute this quote to? Was it Tupac? Too Short? Iced Cube? Or, 50 cent? Maybe it is not from rap. Maybe you have it confused. Perhaps you are thinking of Seal's tune "Prayer For The Dying," which contains the lyric "time is the only thing that stands between me and you." That makes more sense to me.

After giving your post more consideration than it is due, I must reject your notion that time is the only thing that separates me from murdering my housekeeper. On the other hand, I did notice that Maribeth did forget to clean the inside of the refridgerator this week. When I get my hands on that b**ch I'm gonna strangle her.

[FIGHETTO]

Those bastards deserve the electric chair!!


yes you have the reason

[amadgenius]

Actually it was a french philosopher who coined the phrase. So all that bull**** you typed below was not even necessary. But I am sure you have never committed a crime in your life before...no matter what the degree?! You are the quintessence of godlyness.Let me think about that.......Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan........"the only difference between innocent people and criminals is time." Hmmm. Sounds like lyrics from a rap tune. By the way, who was the "wise man" that you attribute this quote to? Was it Tupac? Too Short? Iced Cube? Or, 50 cent? Maybe it is not from rap. Maybe you have it confused. Perhaps you are thinking of Seal's tune "Prayer For The Dying," which contains the lyric "time is the only thing that stands between me and you." That makes more sense to me.

After giving your post more consideration than it is due, I must reject your notion that time is the only thing that separates me from murdering my housekeeper. On the other hand, I did notice that Maribeth did forget to clean the inside of the refridgerator this week. When I get my hands on that b**ch I'm gonna strangle her.

[Echo]

Actually it was a french philosopher who coined the phrase. So all that bull**** you typed below was not even necessary. But I am sure you have never committed a crime in your life before...no matter what the degree?! You are the quintessence of godlyness.

So, who was "the French philosopher who coined the phrase?" What was his name? What was the context of his/her statement? Never mind, it doesn't matter. O.K., I'll play your little game.

Yes, I broke the law today. While driving to work today, I changed lanes without deploying my turn signals. O.K., you got me. But, I have never murdered anyone nor arranged an elaborate method of burning a dead body beyond recognition. Such deeds are unthinkable to me. Just in case it escaped your attention, this is a general interest thread for those who are interested in following the murder case involving Titus and Ryan. So what is your point, that people do bad things? Thanks for bringing that to our attention.

'Genius, your post(s) are reminiscent of those people that we sometimes see entered in local bodybuilding contests. You know who I mean, the person who enters a contest and looks like he/she has never lifted a weight in his/her life. Meanwhile, the audience has no choice but to sit and watch his/her lame posing routine. For some reason that person is convinced that their posing routine just has to be seen when all the while it is abundantly clear to everyone that this person has nothing to show us. This moment of "wisdom" is from the American philosopher, Echo.

[amadgenius]

Give it some time son, you will be in the hot chair...trust me. And as far as my post not going with the general flow of "professional posters" like yourself; who have college degrees in posting on threads (hint: your long winded and so-called thoughtout comment)....I elect to focus my energy and smarts on more worthy careers. But as long as you get gratification from your comic relief...I ain't mad at you. And the crazy thing about this...is that we do not even know one another nor will ever meet (at least not under these names) but your ass is getting all worked up over a post that was not even directed to you. Damn man (if you are one) stop hitting the gym so hard and hit something more enjoyable; like some skins. Peace!...cause you need it.
So, who was "the French philosopher who coined the phrase?" What was his name? What was the context of his/her statement? Never mind, it doesn't matter. O.K., I'll play your little game.

Yes, I broke the law today. While driving to work today, I changed lanes without deploying my turn signals. O.K., you got me. But, I have never murdered anyone nor arranged an elaborate method of burning a dead body beyond recognition. Such deeds are unthinkable to me. Just in case it escaped your attention, this is a general interest thread for those who are interested in following the murder case involving Titus and Ryan. So what is your point, that people do bad things? Thanks for bringing that to our attention.

'Genius, your post(s) are reminiscent of those people that we sometimes see entered in local bodybuilding contests. You know who I mean, the person who enters a contest and looks like he/she has never lifted a weight in his/her life. Meanwhile, the audience has no choice but to sit and watch his/her lame posing routine. For some reason that person is convinced that their posing routine just has to be seen when all the while it is abundantly clear to everyone that this person has nothing to show us. This moment of "wisdom" is from the American philosopher, Echo.

[Echo]

Fitness pair plead not guilty; trial date set

By GLENN PUIT
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Craig Titus announced with emphasis Thursday that he is innocent of charges he killed 28-year-old Melissa James.

When asked by District Judge Jackie Glass for his plea to the murder charge he faces, Titus, a 41-year-old professional bodybuilder, replied in a loud, deep, raspy voice: "100 percent not guilty."

Titus' 33-year-old wife, fitness champion Kelly Ryan, was more low-key, responding with a simple "not guilty." When the judge asked Ryan for her education level, Ryan noted that she has a bachelor's degree in journalism. Titus told the judge that he is a high school graduate.

Glass set a trial date of Jan. 22, prompting Titus to shake his head in apparent disappointment about how long it will take his case to go to trial.

Afterward, defense attorney Richard Schonfeld said he will file court motions asking Glass to set bail for his client so Titus can have a chance of awaiting trial outside the confines of the Clark County Detention Center.

"He's got a very good character, and he's confident ... he's very adamant that he's not guilty," Schonfeld said.

Titus does not have access to his weightlifting equipment and nutritional supplements, and he appeared noticeably smaller than in prior court appearances.

Anthony Gross, who is accused of being an accomplice in the case, pleaded not guilty to helping Titus and Ryan burn James' body, which was found early Dec. 14 in the trunk of Ryan's burned-out Jaguar sedan off a desert highway southwest of Las Vegas. Gross, 23, remains under house arrest after posting $13,000 bail. Gross was charged with accessory to murder and third-degree arson.

Titus and Ryan could be convicted if they are found to have killed James in one or several ways, including suffocation, an overdose of morphine, duct tape on James' face and several shocks with a Taser stun gun. They are alleged to have done all of that to James.

A county coroner's autopsy in December left the cause of death undetermined and listed opiate intoxication as a contributing factor.

Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the death penalty in the case.

The grand jury indicted Titus and Ryan in the slaying after prosecutors presented evidence that James was drugged, bound, shocked with a Taser gun and strangled.

In grand jury testimony that led to the couple's indictment, the victim's mother, Maura James, said she last heard from her daughter on Dec. 13, the day police allege Melissa James was killed. During that cell phone call, from the drive-through of a KFC restaurant, Melissa James was "her usual upbeat self," her mother told the grand jury.

Melissa James was scheduled to fly home to New Jersey the next morning, and Maura James went to pick her up at the airport, but her daughter never arrived.

Maura James said she repeatedly called Craig Titus during the next couple of days seeking answers, but he didn't call back. In the meantime, Las Vegas authorities called Maura James and told her they suspected it was her daughter's body found in the back of Ryan's car.

Titus finally called Maura James on Dec. 17.

"He told me that the police had spoken to him and that he didn't have anything to do with it," Maura James said.

"He also said that he didn't believe it was her in the trunk of the car and that he felt like she staged the whole thing to (get) herself a new identity," she said.

"He told me he wasn't mad at her for burning the car, that he would get the money back from the insurance company," Maura James said. "When he said that he didn't think it was her in the car, I told him that they were going to do DNA (testing,) and he seemed surprised.

"I could tell, sense in his voice, that he was he was not expecting me to say that," she said.

A friend of Ryan, Megan Pierson, testified to the grand jury that Ryan and Titus confessed to brutalizing and ultimately killing Melissa James after they discovered she was stealing from them and possibly planning to steal their identities. Pierson said Ryan used the Taser on James, Ryan and Titus both beat the victim, they injected her with a large quantity of morphine, then Titus killed her with a chokehold.

Police said the couple also said that James overdosed on drugs, and they panicked and burned her body -- worried that publicity about the death would hurt their careers.

Titus initially told police that he had an affair with James. Later, Titus and Ryan told police they had evicted James from their house after discovering she was stealing from them, and that she stole Ryan's car.

Titus and Ryan were arrested Dec. 23 at a nail salon in Stoughton, Mass. Police accused them of fleeing to avoid prosecution. Their lawyers said they were visiting friends for the holidays.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Echo]

Click here for details and pictures (Check out the home gym - very cool): http://getbig.com/news/2006-02/060404titus.htm

[Echo]

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/2006/03/30/awsi1.html


Eight days after the lifeless body of Melissa James was discovered bound and burned in the trunk of a red 2003 Jaguar, Kelly Ryan's best friend met with the detectives assigned to the case and told them all that she knew. Already convinced that Kelly and her husband, Craig Titus, were culpable not just of burning the Jaguar in the desert with Melissa's body in the trunk, but also of murdering the young woman the day before, the detectives considered the new witness their greatest fortune. And that's because she—Kelly's closest friend—knew more about what happened in those tragic days surrounding December 14, 2005, than anyone else, save for Kelly and Craig themselves. And so it was only natural that she would be subpoenaed to testify in front of the grand jury when state
prosecutors, charging the couple with first-degree murder, kidnapping and third-degree arson, sought an indictment. She had been at the couple's house on Monday, December 12, and on Tuesday, December 13; plus, Kelly and Craig had come to see her on Friday, December 16, two days after they had burned Melissa's body and one day before they would flee the state of Nevada. Throughout that time, Kelly's best friend allegedly witnessed the conflicts that gave rise to this whole drama, heard detailed accounts of the events from Kelly and Craig themselves, and watched its aftermath with a cringed stomach and her heart in her throat. On March 22, 2006, she spoke in front of the grand jury, and this, by and large, is the story she alleges—a version of which she told us later:

Before Craig Titus murdered his roommate Melissa James in cold blood, with the assistance of Kelly Ryan, the tension inside his house had become unbearable. Kelly had suspicions that Melissa was stealing from her, for there were charges to her credit card account (which Craig controlled, just like the house and the red 2003 Jaguar under Kelly's name) for purchases made at stores Melissa had been notorious for frequenting, and because she was told Melissa had had a past record of chicanery in Florida. Melissa (who had been heavy into pernicious drugs at the time) resented the charges, and soon she and Kelly were fighting with such clamor that Craig booked a hotel room for Melissa for two nights: that Monday, December 12, and Tuesday, December 13.

Craig then escorted Melissa to her hotel room at the La Quinta Hotel on West Sahara Avenue, five miles from their Spring Valley home. When he returned, Craig, a man infamous for his short temper and feared even by his friends, found his own reasons to believe Melissa was indeed defrauding them, and he became enraged.

Melissa, who did not possess a car at the time, ended up back at Craig's home the next afternoon (after speaking with her mother over the phone at a quarter to noon, and eating chicken and rice at Kentucky Fried Chicken, detective reports state), and sometime before the winter sun descended, the atrocity occurred: Craig choked Melissa with his bare hands, Kelly held her down, punched her in the face, and shot her six times with an Air Taser Gun, and one of them injected Melissa with an inordinate dose of morphine.

After the irreversible deed had been done, Craig phoned Kelly's best friend, and in unclear rapidity said that he was in some trouble, that he was going to put it in his trunk and take care of it, and that he didn't want to get caught. And then he hung up.

At 9 o' clock that night Craig again telephoned Kelly's best friend, who was eating dinner with her husband at the Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, and Craig said that he had discovered Melissa was stealing from him, but that he took care of it. It was a haunting statement that was not atypical of Craig's character, and so Kelly's best friends thought it was another one of his endless bad jokes and accepted his invitation to come over and watch movies on his home movie theater, as she and her husband had done so many times before.

(But the real reason Kelly's best friend wanted to go over that night was to talk about getting Kelly into an intervention program for her drug crisis. The former world-champion fitness star was shipwrecked during those final months of 2005, sinking so deep into the quagmire of drugs—cocaine and oxycontin and Nubane and crystal methamphetamines—that the Kelly Ryan whom friends, family and fans had known was no longer visible. Kelly, a woman who once had one of the best female physiques in the world, had succumbed to wearing long-sleeve shirts and turtlenecks in those calamitous days. She was witnessed shooting drugs in her toes on a daily basis. Craig had said he would help to rehab his wife, but the truth was that he was in even worse shape than she. In fact, it was the reason he had stopped competing in the bodybuilding contests. He could not stop his interminable succession of ‘one last hurrah's', and everyone knows one can't mix steroids with either recreational or hard-core drugs, for that's how athletes die.

Together the couple had been so imprudent with their money that Kelly—who'd had some $80,000 in her checking account alone less than a year ago—stood frustrated and moneyless in front of an ATM machine while she and Craig were on the run. At the time of the murder they were together harvesting more than $30,000 in monthly income, but most of it went to the couple's insatiable addictions. One of which was Craig's habit for expensive prostitutes.

In other words: the couple who had once been on top of the world were well on their way to hitting rock bottom when Kelly's best friend agreed to meet them on the night of December 13, 2005. And they would hit it, of course, the very next morning.)

Kelly's best friend went to Kelly's house that Tuesday night with her husband, despite the bad feeling that was active and irrepressible in his stomach. And it bothered him for good reason: Kelly and Craig tried to set them up as alibis after they arrived. Craig and Kelly had placed Melissa's lifeless body in their Jaguar, which rested in its normal spot in the garage, and encouraged Kelly's best friend and her husband to go with them into the garage to investigate why the light was on at such an untimely hour. Kelly's best friend and her husband weren't going for it, and so Craig and Kelly confessed their opprobrious deed, concluding with an unrighteous request: Remember to corroborate our story.

Kelly's best friend and her husband left, and then Craig summoned the help of Anthony Gross, a 23-year-old sycophant who was indebted to Craig Titus for $1,000. Craig told him: Help me and I'll forget about your debt. And that's all the convincing Tony needed to meet up with the couple at a convenience store across the street from the Ft. Apache Wal-Mart, where surveillance cameras had just caught Kelly purchasing seven bottles of lighter fluid at 3:31 a.m., and then driving alongside their Jaguar in his gray pickup truck to the Shell gas station on Blue Diamond Road and Rainbow Boulevard. (There, while Craig and Kelly waited outside the scope of Shell's surveillance camera, with Melissa's lifeless body in their trunk, he filled up the gas can that he would, 25 miles down State Route 160 and in the midst of the Mountain Springs Desert, hand to Craig, who would douse the contents all over Melissa's body and the red 2003 Jaguar in which it lay.)

Two days later—on December 16, 2005—Craig and Kelly visited the latter's best friend, offering her a nightmarish account of what had transpired over the past few days, handing her a gym bag with the Air Taser Gun in it, and telling her to remember the light in the garage from Tuesday night when a Detective Dean O'Kelley came around asking questions.

For an entire hour on Wednesday, March 22, 2006, Kelly's best friend told the grand jury all that they wanted to know, some version of this story. That information, in concert with the other evidence and witness testimony prosecutors presented during the private week-long hearing, appears to have been enough, for the grand jury sealed and delivered an indictment to District Judge David Wall on Friday, March 24, charging Kelly Ryan and Craig Titus with the murder of Melissa James.

Attorneys for the couple, who did not return phone calls in time to comment on this witness' story, have said it could be up to a year before the trial commences.

[tighthat]

proof, as if any were needed, of the reality and power of addiction.