Hit Planned on Witnesses in Craig Titus Case

The murder case against former fitness professionals Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan in the death of their former assistant, Melissa James, gets odder with each passing week. The latest is that a former cellmate of Craig Titus has been charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill three key witnesses in the case. Titus and Ryan's involvement in the attempt is unclear and so far they have not been charged.

Glen Puit of the Review-Journal has owned this story locally since Titus and Ryan were returned to Las Vegas to face trial for James' death. Puit today reports on numerous contacts and connections between Titus and the man arrested for allegedly trying to have the witnesses against Titus killed.

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10:52 AM PT, Oct 24 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Questions for Craig Titus?

Fitness professionals Craig Titus and his wife Kelly Ryan are charged in the murder of their assistant Melissa James. Titus apparently fired his lawyers, because they would not let him give press interviews.

The Review-Journal scored the first interview with Titus since his December capture (when Titus and Ryan were either vacationing or on the lam, depending on whose interpretation of events you believe). In the interview, Titus proclaims both his innocence and his general good virtue as a person. "My wife and I are caring people. We are loving people," Titus says.

According to the Review-Journal, "Titus said the only thing he is guilty of is bad judgment on the night James' body was set ablaze in the trunk of Ryan's red Jaguar in the desert off Blue Diamond Road."

Titus doesn't mention it, but if he is responsible for the fire, in my opinion it wasn't very caring and loving of him to be involved in that.

On this same subject, according to the Review-Journal's account of the police interview conducted just after his arrest, Titus claims he allegedly told police he found James dead of a drug overdose in the car. He also described this now-beloved friend's body as "stinking up my (expletive) car."

Then there was the newspaper's account of his initial interview with police, after which came the fleeing/vacation thingy, when he claimed to know nothing about James death at all, nor how her body wound up in his wife's car.

Even less caring and loving is the paper's description of the police's version of events, which involves Titus and Ryan allegedly using a Taser on James, then drugging her and duct-taping her face.

And according to all the Review-Journal articles so far, Titus seems poised to admit being involved with putting James' dead body in a car trunk and setting it afire.

I will, of course, contact Craig Titus' new lawyer and request an interview. My guess is that his lawyer will not allow him to answer questions directly about certain elements of the case. The lawyer would not let the him answer any questions about the night James died in the Review-Journal interview. But I still hope Titus' love of press interviews continues long enough to talk to the Buffet. Please feel free to post your questions here for Craig Titus.

(Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP)

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02:48 PM PT, Sep 14 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Craig Titus Has Tantrum in Court

The murder case against the bodybuilding celebrity couple Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan is back in the headlines. On Tuesday a court hearing was held to determine wether to dismiss charges against the duo of allegedly killing their personal assistant, Melissa James, 28.

Most press accounts have focused on the voluble and apparently not very bright Titus. But Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas argued: "It was Kelly Ryan herself who was involved in the fight with Melissa Jamas. It was Kelly Ryan who used a Taser or stun gun.... It was Kelly Ryan herself who injected Melissa James with morphine."

According to the Review-Journal, Craig Titus then interrupted the proceedings offering a dream moment to prosecutors by yelling in open court: "No she did not!" Prosecutor Daskas was ready, saying instantly, "Well, let's ask Mr. Titus who did it." Titus offered no answer beyond, "I'm getting tired of him saying that."

Well, Mr. Titus, you are going to find a murder trial totally exhausting, because the judge refused to dismiss any charges. The trial is set to begin in January.

(Photo: Bizuayehu Tesfaye / AP)

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11:20 AM PT, Jul 19 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Craig Titus Laughs First But Justice Laughs Last

What's so funny? Former fitness competitors Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan were both denied bail on Tuesday by Judge Jackie Glass. Judge Glass set the trial for the duo in the alleged murder of their personal assistant Melissa James for January 2007. According to the Review-Journal, after Glass made the ruling, Titus burst into inexplicable laughter. I do not know what Titus was laughing about yesterday. But what is putting a smile on my face this morning is reading a brief item on the facing page in the paper. In another case Tuesday, the same Judge tossed the book at a convicted 21 year old murderer, Randy Lopez, with a sentence of 64-150 years. According to the Review-Journal:

"Glass said Lopez deserved to be shown the same amount of compassion he showed his victims."

In this case, Titus is accused of drugging, tasering, beating, duck taping, strangling and burning the body of James. If convicted, I suspect Judge Glass will remember Titus' good humor in court at his sentencing.

photo by JOHN LOCHER, MBR/AP

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07:29 AM PT, Apr 19 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Craig Titus and the Art of Lame Explanations

Craig Titus has not demonstrated himself to be the most clever of accused murderers. After all, he allegedly hid his victim's body in his own car. Then there was all that talking to police in which he allegedly offered conflicting accounts of how his former assistant, Melissa James, 28, died: ranging from an overdose on drugs to possibly rough sex with him. On the other hand, his consistency will probably not help him either; according to police, Titus has consistently offered two motives for murder in his explanations trying to clear himself by allegedly admitting to both an extramarital affair with James as well as accusing his alleged victim of stealing from him.

More evidence of Titus intellectual limitations were on display yesterday in court, if the witness testimony is to be believed. According to today's Review-Journal, James' mother in testimony revealed that Titus tried to convince her that her daughter had faked her death and was not the corpse found in Titus' burned car. In fact, Titus even magnanimously informed Mrs. James that he was not angry at the 28 year old for burning his Jaguar. Yet, when Mrs. James told Titus that DNA tests would soon clear that issue up she testified that Titus seemed caught off guard as if he had not anticipated that possibility.

Leaving aside Titus' intellect, also in court yesterday Titus demonstrated an eerie lack of originality with his imitation of a far more famous athlete charged in murder. Entering his plea, OJ Simpson style, Titus told the judge in a loud voice that he was: "100 percent not guilty."

Of course, while not a mathematician, if in fact he has allegedly already confessed to disposing of James' body in his car that he then set on fire perhaps the correct percentage--- even if he didn't kill her----should, at best, be closer to 87% not guilty. Well, that is a decision for a jury to make and only after a trial which yesterday was scheduled to begin in January, 2007.

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07:55 AM PT, Mar 31 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Titus and Ryan To Face Charges

The Review-Journal is reporting that the grand jury indictments of former fitness champs Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan in the murder of their assistant Melissa James will be unsealed this morning. Glenn Puit writes:

"The indictment is expected to be unsealed today because it is the last day to unseal indictments before the pair's scheduled preliminary hearing next week in Las Vegas Justice Court."

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08:38 AM PT, Mar 24 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Titus and Ryan to Face Grand Jury

It looks like there will be a slight change in the prosecution of a murder case involving two championship body builders charged in the killing of their 28 year old assistant Melissa James. According to the Review-Journal's Glenn Puit the prosecutors plan to take the case to a grand jury: "If the grand Jury returns an indictment, the preliminary hearing for the case, scheduled for this month, will be canceled."

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08:26 AM PT, Mar 16 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Titus and Ryan In Court Together

A longtime follower of bodybuilding, Joshua Longbardy (who is my colleague at Las Vegas Weekly) went to court this morning to cover the Titus and Ryan hearing for a feature on the case. He was kind enough to dash off these observations for readers of The Movable Buffet on what transpired:

"It wasn't until Craig snuck her a few furtive glances, along with a few clandestine words, that Kelly cracked. Throughout the entire morning Kelly had remained silent and impassible. (Even when the prosecutor leading the case against her had announced to Judge Bonaventure's courtroom, packed with journalists of all types: cameramen from local news stations, photographers from bodybuilding publications, AP reporters, etc. that she was no longer being charged with accessory to murder in the death of Melissa James, but rather, with one count of murder, as well as one count of kidnapping; and that Craig too now had a kidnapping charge added to his plate.) She just sat reclined in the back of the courtroom, handcuffed, two rows behind the biggest man in the room, Craig, saying no more than what her attorney, the venerable defense lawyer Tom Pitaro, advised her.

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01:36 PM PT, Feb 1 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Kelly Ryan Goes to Court

Kelly Ryan made her first appearance in court, and is set to do so again today with her husband, Craig Titus. But the big news is that, according to her attorney, a loophole in Nevada law prevents Ryan from being charged as an accessory to the murder of the couple's 28 year-old assistant, Melissa James. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, quotes well known local defense lawyer Tom Pitaro in a motion arguing:

"A wife cannot be criminally liable as an accessory after the fact to a felony committed by her husband. A spouse is specifically exempted from criminal liability by the express words of the statute."

The couple apparently still maintains they were vacationing in Massachusetts when they were arrested and that they were not fleeing as authorities claim. New details, however, include, according to authorities, that the two allegedly stopped using their cell phones, avoided staying in hotels and had $8,300 in the false bottom of an aerosol can.

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07:40 AM PT, Feb 1 2006 in Craig Titus , Kelly Ryan | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ryan Hearing Next Week

Kelly Ryan has been returned to Las Vegas to face charges in the death of Melissa James, 28, the former personal assistant to her and her husband. Her hearing has been scheduled for January 31. No news yet on when her husband, Craig Titus, will arrive. The duo are being returned to Nevada from Massachusetts where they were originally arrested. A private company handles these sorts of transfers, apparently moving groups of people in custody together, and so the length of the process varies. That is why Ryan happened to arrive first and it is unclear the exact date of Titus's return.

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07:09 AM PT, Jan 27 2006 in Craig Titus , Kelly Ryan | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Titus and Ryan May Be Back in Vegas

Bodybuilder Craig Titus and his wife Kelly Ryan, a former Ms. Fitness America, have been returned to Las Vegas to face charges in the murder of Melissa James, 28. According to the Review-Journal:

"Kelly and Ryan could be arraigned in a Clark County courtroom before the week's end."

The duo still contends that they were on vacation and not fleeing when they were arrested near Boston. If the two get a crack at bail and the amount set will be a good indication if the judge is buying that.

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09:53 AM PT, Jan 17 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Titus to Abandon Extradition Fight

Looks like a change of tactics in the Craig Titus case. Titus, wanted here in Nevada, to face charges in the death of his assistant, Melissa James, 28, had been fighting extradition the past two weeks from Boston where he and his wife (and accused accomplice) Kelly Ryan were arrested. According to an attorney for Titus he really never intended to fight extradition in the first place: "We only wanted to hold it (a flight back to Nevada)up a little bit to let the dust settle. The case has been so sensationalized." The expectation is that within the next couple weeks the couple could be returned to Las Vegas to face the charges.

(photo by BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE/AP)

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07:31 AM PT, Jan 6 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (1)

Accused Killers May Have Liked to Party

Norm, from the Review-Journal, has taken on the private lives of accused killers Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan. Norm notes (what a number of you have put in comments to the Buffet) stories abound around town that Titus and Ryan were swingers or as Norm puts it: "a steroid-fueled lifestyle of wife-swapping and group-sex parties". I've also gotten these reports in a slew of, I'm afraid, unprintable, comments here to the Buffet. This might be a good time to remember these stories are more or less, mere gossip. Yet, according to Norm, the two were regulars in Vegas topless bars Spearmint Rhino and Sapphire. Most disturbing however is a quote Norm found in the February issue of Playboy in which Titus describes anabolic steroid use:

I am talking about a libido like no other, a sense of wellness like no other.

This is all very interesting and certainly provides ample evidence of why body builders are a poor source of pharmaceutical advice. However, it isn't clear that this brings us any closer to the real issue: the murder of Melissa James.

(photo by BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE/AP)

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07:45 AM PT, Jan 4 2006 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0)

FreeCraigTitus.com

Yes, a website has sprung up dedicated to the bodybuilder accused of murdering 28 year-old Melissa James. Despite the name, there is this disclaimer on the homepage: "this site makes NO CLAIM of guilt or truth. We take no side in this case. This is simply a collection of information and images sent to us about the ongoing case."

(photo by BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE/AP)

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07:46 AM PT, Dec 30 2005 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (10)

Titus and Ryan Fighting Extradition

When it seems that you are obviously lying about the little things it is hard to believe you on the larger issues. Take body builders and murder suspects Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan. The duo vanished after they were questioned by Las Vegas police about the murder of their assistant, Melissa James, 28, whose strangled corpse was found in Titus' burned out Jaguar. After a massive manhunt, the police find the dynamic duo in Massachusetts with a thick stack of cash: Titus had shaved his head and Kelly dyed her hair. But the two claim they were absolutely NOT running or hiding. According to their attorney this morning in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

These two were here (near Boston) to spend some time for the holidays...They found out they were wanted for arrest and were ready to come back.

Can even their best friends believe that? Also, if they were ready to come back then and clear their names why are they fighting extradition back to Vegas now, which may keep them in Massachusetts for months?

Speaking of friends, how's this for a quote from a friend of Titus in the same story:

If Craig was going to kill her, he would have done it with his hands---not a noose or duct tape or anything. Craig would've grabbed her by the neck or choked her easily. I know how Craig thinks.

So, let me get this straight, his own friend believes Craig is capable of murder and, not only that, his friend believes strangulation would be Craig's preferred method ergo it wasn't him? Fantastic reasoning! I bet that guy believes they were just vacationing, too.

(photos by BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE/AP)

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08:57 AM PT, Dec 28 2005 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (32)

Do you know Titus and Ryan?

I am looking into the lives of Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan: well known professional bodybuilders who are suspects in a Las Vegas murder case I've been following in this space. For better or worse, fairly or (probably) not, the case has really focused attention locally on the closed world of professional bodybuilding. Many of you who have left comments here on the Buffet knew the couple personally and, I very much want to hear from you about your experiences with Titus and Ryan. Many of these, especially ones that make accusation's about the suspects' personal lives, I'm afraid we are unable to post here. But please, if you have information you'd like to share, e-mail me at MovableBuffet@aol.com And expect more on the Buffet on this case and the high profile suspects.

After the jump, we have pictures of Titus and Ryan from their arraignment in Stoughton, Mass.

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Bodybuilder Couple Arrested

Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan have been arrested after being tracked to a supermarket parking outside Boston. Where, according to the Review Journal:

officers swarmed the couple, Titus was inside his truck, a MUG root beer at his side. Ryan was inside a nail salon at the shopping center, Canton, Mass., Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz said at a Friday night news conference, according to the Boston Herald.

"He was inside his vehicle," Berkowitz said. "She had gone in, I believe, to get a manicure."

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11:10 PM PT, Dec 24 2005 in Craig Titus | Permalink | Comments (0)

More on Wanted Body Builders

The Review-Journal offers substantial coverage this morning of the two body builders wanted in the murder of 28 year-old Melissa James, their live-in assistant, whose corpse was found in the trunk of a burned out Jaguar. Craig Titus apparently admitted to police he had an affair with James. Also, Titus and his wife accused their alleged victim of embezzlement and theft, too, before running away from authorities:

They said they had recently evicted her for embezzling from them but they had not filed a police complaint. Both told investigators that James had stolen Ryan's car, though they did not report the theft to police.

The two gallants are still at large though their alleged accomplice, 23 year-old Anthony Gross, has been captured. The Review-Journal also has a heartbreaking interview with the victims mother who says of the suspects:

I find it hard to believe they had anything to do with it because she trusted them as friends.

According to the R-J, expecting her child home for the holiday, the mother of Melissa James, Maura, had gone to the Newark airport to meet her daughter's flight only to go home alone and start making the hospital and other calls one makes when a loved one vanishes, all ending with the coroner's call to her. How very, very, sad.

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07:31 AM PT, Dec 23 2005 in Craig Titus , Vegas crime | Permalink | Comments (7)