Tom O’Connell

Thomas M. O’Connell is the former Senior Litigation Counsel and Chief of the Narcotics and Violent Crimes Section of the United States Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to his 13 years in the Las Vegas U.S. Attorneys Office, he served for 8 years in the Northern District of California. Tom retired in 2013 and relocated back to Las Vegas. Since then, he has helped trained Las Vegas Metro, North Las Vegas and Henderson police, and U.S. Probation. He’s addressed inmates at High Desert State Prison and guest lectured at both UNLV and Boyd School of Law.

Joseph Bailie Headline

U.S. v Joseph Bailie and Ellis Hurst (“Anti-Government Poster Boys”)

After conducting an extensive investigation into the attempted bombing of the IRS offices in Reno with a fertilizer bomb, charged two subjects with perjury and false statements (convicted one after trial, the other was convicted after trial by another AUSA). Indicted Bailie and Hurst for Conspiracy, Attempted Arson by Explosives, Use of Firearm (to wit: …

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True Las Vegas Crime Story, Rick Lee Archer, Gene DiUlio

The Ultimate Escape Artists: A True Las Vegas Crime Story

A True Las Vegas Crime Story: U.S. v Rick Lee Archer and Gene DiUlio (“The Ultimate Escape Artists”) This true Las Vegas crime story is about Rick Lee Archer and Gene DiUlio. These two defendants, members of the Aryan Brotherhood, were the last prisoners to escape from a federal maximum security facility (Lompoc, CA). They then …

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The grim reality of Officer Safety

U.S. v Andre Lavon Taylor (“Little Pimp, Big Mouth”)

At the request of Las Vegas Metro Vice,  prosecuted a notorious childabusing low-life who called himself “Gorgeous Dre” or alternatively “The Big Pimp”. Metro identified him as a major interstate panderer of juveniles. We learned that the defendant was being featured in the Hughes Brothers (Menace to Society, Dead Presidents, etc.) documentary film “American Pimp, …

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The grim reality of Officer Safety

U.S. v Ricardo Murillo et. al. (“Strange Bedfellows”)

In 2000, prosecuted Christopher Moseley, husband of DuPont heiress Lisa Dean Moseley, and others for Murder for Hire. Moseley traveled from his Delaware estate to Las Vegas and recruited Diana Hironaga, a former stripper and porn star, to kill Patricia Margello, a drug addict/prostitute and the girlfriend of Lisa Dean Mosley’s son, Dean. Hironaga in …

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The grim reality of Officer Safety

U.S. v Jerald Burgess (“Ultimate Frustration”)

In 2001, we reopened the 1978 investigation of 6-year-old Cary Sayegh’s heartbreaking disappearance and presumed murder. During the course of the investigation, a consummate and notorious confidential informant gleaned valuable evidence about the crime from Burgess, the prime suspect (who had been acquitted on state charges of kidnapping Cary years earlier). The informant was also …

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