Bail set for man charged in connection with body found in concrete

A Las Vegas judge set bail at $500,000 on Tuesday for a man charged in the slaying of a 24-year-old model whose body authorities said was found encased in concrete.

Christopher Prestipino, 45, faces murder and kidnapping charges in the death of Esmeralda Gonzalez, while his girlfriend faces a charge of harboring, concealing or aiding a felon.

Should Prestipino post bail, he would be subject to electronic monitoring, Justice of the Peace Harmony Letizia decided. Meanwhile, the judge allowed his girlfriend, Lisa Mort, to be released on electronic monitoring.

The judge also ordered the two to have no contact.

At least 50 friends and relatives of Gonzalez’s attended Tuesday’s hearing. They later declined to speak with reporters.

A criminal complaint filed late last week also charges 39-year-old Casandra Garrett, who has several aliases, with murder and kidnapping. She was arrested in Wisconsin and is awaiting extradition.

Court documents allege that Prestipino and Garrett killed Gonzalez “with a poisonous substance and/or by strangulation.”

Gonzalez, who worked in the adult entertainment industry and had more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, lived about one-tenth of a mile from Prestipino.

Her Facebook profile indicated that she was from Michoacán, Mexico, and had studied at UNLV.

A UNLV spokesman said that a student named Esmeralda Gonzalez last attended the school in Fall 2018 as an undergraduate majoring in communication studies.

Prosecutors have written in court papers that Prestipino took extensive measures to hide Gonzalez’s body after he strangled her and injected her with pool cleaner.

His lawyer, Bill Terry, argued that Prestipino was not a flight risk, saying that he had returned to Las Vegas from a short vacation before his arrest earlier this month.

But Chief Deputy District Attorney Pamela Weckerly said Prestipino may have had plans to travel as far as China before his arrest. He returned from Belize after telling Mort that “if everything’s cool,” he would come get her, according to court documents.

Gonzalez was last seen alive in the pre-dawn hours of May 31, when she was captured on residential surveillance video trying to open the door to a home in the 9000 block of West Torino Avenue, less than two-tenths of a mile from Prestipino’s home.

Prosecutors have alleged that Gonzalez was at Garrett and Prestipino’s residence in the 9000 block of Iron Cactus Avenue and that she was left tied up to a bedpost for an extended period of time before she was killed.

She had threatened to call police on Prestipino because of the drugs he had given her, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Mort has denied knowing anything about Gonzalez’s disappearance. But in recorded jail calls before Prestipino was arrested, he “warned her not to speak with anyone,” according to court documents.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.