Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Family Ties - The Murders of Maria Marino and Richard Penardo Jr.

Starting point is 00:00:00 To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show! Sometimes a news story seems to be a simple, straightforward, tragic case of someone injured in a car accident. That's where we start today, but as we dig deeper, we find not only a tangled mess of jealousy and domestic violence, but another related case from almost two decades ago.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Yep, once we started digging into what happened with Richard Panardo and Julie Dean Bush in May of 2024 here in Las Vegas, it was like peeling back the layers of an onion. It turned out to be a case of some seemingly very troubled people, drug use, and various deadly weapons, and it tied back to another case from 2008. This one left us with some pretty complex reactions, and we were reminded that and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I'm your host, Sean. And I'm your co-host, John. This case originally seemed to be simply a case of a car accident where someone sadly

Starting point is 00:01:20 lost their life, something that's unfortunately very common in Las Vegas. As of our recording date, there have been 46 traffic deaths this year, and there were 293 last year. Obviously, that's not something we'd normally cover. That's more the job of the nightly news. But the initial reporting was pretty quickly replaced with the news that these two people were in a relationship, so we knew we needed to do some more research. In fact, even after getting a resolution on this case, we realized there was even more to the story. As we learned about our victim, we realized there was another case we needed to research from 16 years ago. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Do you want to start us out on our first case? This case happened pretty recently compared to a lot of cases we've covered.

Starting point is 00:02:09 It happened near the downtown Fremont Street area, about two miles east of the Stratosphere, on 17th and Bonita. That's the very same area where Carla Rodriguez went missing in 1999. That area has been a little bit economically depressed for a while, because Las Vegas and Henderson have tended to grow out, creating new neighborhoods rather than rehabbing the older neighborhoods. They don't seem to want to spend money on the older neighborhoods, which is a huge shame because there are some amazing homes all around that area. There are some exceptions, but there's definitely a well-known problem of sprawl here. Police responded to a 911 call from someone saying that a person had intentionally hit a pedestrian with their car, and that was their initial assessment of what happened as well. The driver was identified as 30-year-old Julie Dean Bush.

Starting point is 00:02:54 According to court documents we obtained, it was an absolutely wild scene, and the victim was in fact her boyfriend of about a year, a 51-year-old man named Richard Pernardo Jr. The records indicate that they were involved in a fight, which was called out as a domestic violence incident, that started with an argument for a reason that I don't think we've ever heard before. Yeah, I think that's true. Apparently, and again, according to court documents and news reporting, Julie said that she had found tampons in the trash that weren't hers, and she confronted her boyfriend, Bernardo, over them. The argument escalated into a screaming match that spilled outside into the street. Julie got into her car and drove into

Starting point is 00:03:35 Bernardo's truck, possibly several times, and then left the area, but came back a few minutes later. Bernardo came outside with a long steel chain wrapped around his arm, and he started swinging it at Julie's car, denting it, scratching it, and breaking her windows. That was when she decided, unconsciously or not, to turn the car into a deadly weapon, aiming it at him but hitting another vehicle

Starting point is 00:03:58 in her attempt to hit him, then attempting to hit him again. She finally struck him when she was backing up. Witnesses say she hit him so hard that he flew through the air and slammed into a brick wall. Not only were there witnesses, but the entire incident was also captured on a ring doorbell camera. When I heard that description and the long list of people and evidence of what happened, I had a feeling I knew where this would be going when it finally got to court. Same here. It's hard to imagine how someone could just snap like that.

Starting point is 00:04:30 It seems like Julie somewhat came to her senses and she seemed to know what she had done because according to witnesses, when the police and paramedics arrived, she was leaning over Bernardo, crying hysterically. Richard Bernardo was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, and the police searched Julie's vehicle, and what they found didn't make things any better for her. They found a bag of methamphetamine and a bag of fentanyl. When Julie was talking to the police after the incident, she actually said that she took some fentanyl that day before the argument took place. Police charged her with attempted murder, DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm, domestic battery resulting in substantial bodily harm, and drug possession. Unfortunately,

Starting point is 00:05:12 Pernardo died the next day from his injuries, and the charges were upgraded to open murder with the use of a deadly weapon, that's a Category A felony, and DUI with alcohol and or a controlled or prohibited substance resulting in death, that's a Category B felony. Julie was remanded to the Clark County Detention Center and was initially held without bail until a bail hearing on May 25th. Because that was also the day that Pinardo died, the hearing was delayed and it ended up happening five days later on the 30th. When she finally appeared in the Las Vegas Justice Court, it was with a public defender named Lisa Chamblee Brainard, and it was before Judge Noreen DeMonte, and it did not go well. Her public defender asked for bail to be set at $15,000. The assigned prosecutor, Sarah Overley, requested a

Starting point is 00:05:59 much higher bail of $500,000, taking into account the murder, the drug possession, and the drug use. Judge DeMonte, though, shocked everyone in the courtroom when she set bail at a whopping $750,000, which was nothing that Julie could ever pay for. Her lawyer, Lisa, asked the judge to take Julie's ability to pay into account when setting bail, and Judge DeMonte replied that she had taken it into account. setting bail, and Judge DeMonte replied that she had taken it into account. She said, I am setting bail at an amount that I believe she can't afford, and also said that if bail was posted, that she would require high-level electronic monitoring. In the end, she couldn't pay the bail and remained in CCDC custody until her trial could start. DeMonte went on to say

Starting point is 00:06:43 that she thought the facts of this case are incredibly terrifying, and I think we can agree that is true. Absolutely, we do. But if the judge wanted her held without bail, she could have just ordered that. I often think of bail as a placeholder. It needs to be high enough that the defendant is putting up that money that they just can't walk away from and that they wouldn't dare skip town and avoid prosecution and risk losing that money. So it's pretty surprising to me that the judge purposely did that to hold Julie for trial,

Starting point is 00:07:16 mostly because she was angry or disgusted with what Julie had allegedly done. Julie was set to be arraigned on June 27, 2024, and a trial was set for May 5, 2025. She appeared a few more times in court in preparation for the trial, but then on March 20, 2025, before the trial started, Julie agreed to a plea deal. Julie pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter with the use of a deadly weapon, a Category B felony, and driving under the influence, resulting in death. Her sentence has been set for June 27th, but based on the plea deal, we have an idea of what to expect. For voluntary manslaughter, a range of 8 to 20 years was recommended with the possibility of parole after one year and a maximum of 10 years.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Plus, for the deadly weapon enhancement, they're recommending a consecutive term of a minimum term of one year and a maximum of 10 years. For the DUI resulting in death, the state agreed not to argue for a minimum term of more than six years and a maximum of no more than 15 years with the possibility of parole after two years and a maximum of 20 years.

Starting point is 00:08:27 There was also a fine of $2,000 to $5,000 for the DUI. So that's a lot, but in the end, it will be up to the judge, and we'll be sure to update you on what she's actually sentenced to in June. We talk a lot about how the news doesn't seem to do a great job covering cases like this, and it was especially bad in this case. There was very little coverage outside of the sensational headlines about how Julie Bush was going to stand trial for intentionally running over her boyfriend, Richard Pernardo Jr., because of a fight that started when she found someone else's tampons in their trash.

Starting point is 00:09:01 That was about it, though. We have some theories about why that might be, but we're going to save that for the swing shift bonus episode. If you want to hear those, head over to sinspod.co slash subscribe, and also email us to let us know what you think. We always share our sources, so you can check those out and read those news articles for yourself. Since we know very little about the victim and the murderer, note not an alleged murderer because she took a plea deal, we decided to look into Richard Pinardo Jr. to see what we could learn about him and his past. The fact that he came out of the house swinging a steel chain

Starting point is 00:09:36 told us there might be some past behavior we have to consider when thinking about how we feel about what happened between him and Julie. Nothing justifies her actions, of course, but that might give them some context. So we started digging, and we quickly realized that there was a very disturbing case that Pinardo was involved with over 16 years ago, also here in Las Vegas. Richard Pinardo had a significant criminal history, with multiple arrests for misdemeanor and felony domestic violence, including assault with a deadly weapon. Most of these from 2003, 2004. As John said, the most disturbing fact is that less than five miles from where he was killed and almost exactly 16 years earlier to the day, Richard was involved in the murder of a 52-old Las Vegas mother, Maria Marino. Maria Marino was born in

Starting point is 00:10:27 Newark, New Jersey on August 8th, 1955 to her parents, Alfred and Maria Ross. Maria was, as you can tell, named after her mother. She moved to Las Vegas in the late 1980s. She married Joseph Marino, who sadly passed away in 2004, and the two of them had two children, Desiree and Joe Jr. Maria had a younger sister named Dolores, which family members said she had a serious sibling rivalry with. Dolores had two children with her husband, Robert Petrosino, Bobby, Robert Jr., and Stephanie. That marriage didn't last, and in 1995, Dolores married Richard Pinardo. Alfred and Maria were generous people, and they were always happy to help their kids whenever they could. Al especially loved the idea of the family living all together, and because of that, they offered that their daughters,

Starting point is 00:11:17 their boyfriends or husbands, and their kids could move in with them in their home on the east side of Las Vegas. Both daughters ended up taking them up on that offer at various times, and when they did, there was a lot of fighting because Maria and Dolores had never gotten along well. They fought as children, now back living in the same house, they fought a lot as adults. There was one incident where they ended up throwing glasses at each other, allegedly, and in order to de-escalate the situation, Al apparently took out a shotgun to try and calm everyone down. It's not clear to me how bringing a gun into the mix was such a great idea to de-escalate that situation, but it seemed to work for him in that case. Their mother passed away in 2000,

Starting point is 00:12:00 and Maria moved back in with her father to help care for him and manage the household. It seems possible that Maria and her dad's close relationship, along with her being in charge of his finances, added to the bad blood between Maria and Dolores. Al owned his own business selling fire suppression systems to casinos, and both Dolores and Maria worked for him, helping him with the day-to-day running of the business and keeping the books. According to family members, Al's business partner raised questions about missing revenue, and he accused Dolores of being responsible. This, of course, caused a huge argument, and Dolores moved out yet again. The sisters weren't the only ones having problems at that time. Dolores' son Bobby was in and out of prison around this time for various

Starting point is 00:12:46 things, including attempted burglary, theft, and stealing cars. In 2005, when he was paroled, Maria allegedly threatened to report him for various parole violations to get him locked up again. It's pretty obvious there was some bad blood.

Starting point is 00:13:03 Multiple members of the family, Dolores, Stephanie, Bobby, and as we said, Richard Pinardo, had a laundry list of various criminal charges ranging from petty theft misdemeanors to felonies such as drug charges, battery, grand theft, and assault. Dolores also went through treatment for breast cancer, which added even more stress to the family. All of this paints a picture of a family dynamic where saying there was a lot of tension would be a bit of an understatement. As with all the stories we share on Sins and Survivors, we want to present you with a complete picture and as much background as we can. We don't have solid information available

Starting point is 00:13:40 on what the motive was for Maria's murder, but we wanted to share what was being talked about as the possible family dynamics at play. That said, that brings us to May 26, 2008, which was Memorial Day. By this point in their lives, Maria's children were both adults and not living with her. Maria was still living with her dad and helping him out, and Dolores and Stephanie were living in the home at that time as well. Bobby, as he did, was serving time at High Desert State Prison. To celebrate Memorial Day, Al and Maria were both expected to attend a get-together at a relative's house. However, no one was sure where Maria was, including her kids, Desiree and Joe Jr. Desiree was out of town on vacation and thought that Maria was spending the holiday with her brother, Joe. Meanwhile, Joe thought that his mom was with Desiree. Neither of them

Starting point is 00:14:30 was aware that no one had seen their mom for a few days. Two days later, on May 28th, a body that we now know to be Maria's was found off Lee Canyon Road, the main road leading up to Mount Charleston. The woman was wearing pajamas and had two names tattooed on her legs, Desiree and Joe. However, Metro didn't have any missing persons reports matching her description, but it was obvious to them that she had been violently murdered in the past week. She had been beaten and strangled with a wire, possibly from a home stereo speaker. When the investigators ran Maria's fingerprints, they were able to identify her quickly since her fingerprints were on record with the Gaming Commission. What happened next is a bit strange, but I think it's obvious that

Starting point is 00:15:15 Las Vegas Metro Police were trying to investigate her murder without tipping their hand to any family members. What makes you think that? Well, Metro knew that Maria had family in Vegas, but no one had reported her missing. They went to talk to Desiree, who said she was having dinner at home with her brother when the police came by. They asked her about Maria being missing, which was news to both her and her brother. They were both pretty confused and unsure of what was going on. The police decided not to tell them that Maria had been found and definitely did not tell them that she was deceased. So this sounds a little shady to me. And I think they were trying to feel out the kids and see if they would say something that

Starting point is 00:15:56 would help the investigation or possibly even implicate themselves if they had something to do with that. When the police left, Desiree told her brother that she had an awful feeling, similar to the feeling she had when their father had died. She picked up the phone and dialed the Clark County Coroner's office, who confirmed that, sadly, yes, Maria had been found and her remains were there at their office. The police questioned the family, Dolores, Stephanie, Al, and Richard, and searched the house, but found no evidence they could use, apparently, and no DNA was found except Maria's, despite all of the people living in the house, which is in itself pretty strange to me. Detectives later said that despite

Starting point is 00:16:37 multiple searches, they had never found any physical evidence tying any suspect directly to Maria's killing or any evidence that would prove an attack took place at the family's home. As we mentioned, Bobby was in prison at the time, and the police went to the prison and questioned him as well. He told them that he didn't know anything about his aunt's murder and he had nothing to offer them that would help in their investigation. Nearly three and a half years later, Metro finally stated they had collected enough evidence to charge not one, but three people with Maria's murder. They charged Stephanie, her niece, her sister Dolores, and her ex-brother-in-law, none other than the victim in our first case, Richard Pinardo. According to the arrest reports, at different times, each of them in some way had admitted guilt of the crime.

Starting point is 00:17:27 For example, when Stephanie was serving time at the Clark County Detention Center for a misdemeanor charge in December of 2008, she allegedly told another inmate that she, quote, had to kill her aunt with her bare hands. It's pretty understandable why the police didn't arrest Stephanie based just on that statement. It's hard to know how credible the other inmate was. It was also reported in the news that two of Stephanie's friends told police that back in June of 2008, she had apparently approached them asking for help to hide her aunt's body, who was apparently at the time still in the trunk of her car.

Starting point is 00:18:03 They also told police that she said she had strangled Maria with a speaker wire. That was incredibly incriminating because the police had purposely never disclosed the discovery of the wire to anyone, and when police questioned Stephanie about that specific fact, she ended the interview. It's still not clear to me why the police didn't arrest Stephanie based on these statements, but as the detectives said, they didn't have any DNA or even a definitive crime scene. Lastly, the day before Maria's body was found, Stephanie called her boyfriend in jail. Obviously, phone calls made to jails and prisons are recorded, but somehow, people continue to forget that.

Starting point is 00:18:45 When she was talking to him, she told him that she expected to be locked up soon and said something to the effect of, I may never see you again. Even with all of this circumstantial evidence, Stephanie wasn't arrested until 2012 when they had more evidence against everyone in the family they thought was involved. As the police had said,

Starting point is 00:19:04 all three of them at one point or another had said something incriminating. There was a witness who told police that five days before Maria disappeared, Dolores said that expletive is going to be dead in seven days. For this statement, I can actually understand why the police wouldn't arrest someone for just exclaiming something like that. I don't think it's uncommon for people to say things like that out of anger or frustration. However, all of this came together in 2011 due to Bobby Petrosino. In 2011, Bobby was once again in prison. It's unclear exactly why or if there was a deal on the table for Bobby to cooperate, but this time when the police talked to him, he had a lot to say. According to the

Starting point is 00:19:45 arrest report, although Bobby told police in 2008 that his mother and sister had nothing to do with his aunt's murder, he later implicated both of them after he realized what happened was wrong. He told police that on May 22nd, 2008, his mom called him at the prison. Of course, that call was recorded, and during the call, Dolores told him, there's not going to be any more problems when you come home. I just had a discussion with my friend that kept giving us a hard time, and she's not going to give us a hard time anymore. Bobby was pretty confident his mom was talking about his Aunt Maria,

Starting point is 00:20:18 but when he asked her if that's who she meant, Dolores got annoyed with him. He also told police that his stepdad, Richard, had called him at prison and asked him if it was raining. His mother also asked him to call her if it was raining at the prison. This one stumped me a little bit. I don't know if they were relieved or troubled by the idea of the rain, but the Review Journal explained that the prison is near Mount Charleston, where Maria's remains were later discovered, and it sounds like maybe they were hoping the rain would delay her being found or perhaps cover up any evidence. Bobby also told police that Richard admitted

Starting point is 00:20:55 to killing Maria. He told him that he had hit Maria with a fire extinguisher and strangled her with a wire. He also told police that Stephanie had admitted to him that she had to finish something that Dolores had started. According to the Review Journal, after three years of finger-pointing from friends and family, the information against them had finally piled up. Police weren't sure about the motive for the crime. Witnesses said that it was likely her death was financially motivated, possibly tied to a rumor that Al was about to receive a large settlement from a lawsuit. They also believed that Dolores may have wanted to control the money that Maria had managed for

Starting point is 00:21:34 so many years. Homicide detective Ray Stieber accredited detective Robert Rogers for the arrests, which he said was a result of Rogers being persistent and meticulous in collecting evidence over the years. He said, He was dedicated to solving this murder, truly relentless. In the end, we obtained the probable cause required. Richard, Dolores, and Stephanie were all charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder with the use of a deadly weapon. There were no trials held, though. All three of them ended up taking plea deals. So, knowing all of this, we are left wondering how the police weren't able to find any forensic evidence at the scene,

Starting point is 00:22:16 given that all of their stories seem to agree that Maria was killed in that home. It seems like if they had used luminol or maybe even checked the home stereo speakers to see if any of them were missing wires, that would have been a great start. Dolores pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 6 to 16 years and served about six. In 2013, Stephanie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 10 years and 36 months to 96 months for the deadly weapon enhancement. As of April 2025, she is still incarcerated with a parole hearing scheduled for the end of April. If we have any updates, we'll be sure to share them with all of you.

Starting point is 00:23:01 And finally, Richard Pinardo. In 2013, Richard pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and, pursuant to an Alford plea, also pled to conspiracy to commit murder. When we were researching this case, we found that sometimes it was mentioned that Richard pled guilty and sometimes it was mentioned that he took an Alford plea. So I did take a look at the court records and found that it is only with regards to that second charge, conspiracy to commit murder, that he took an Alford plea. I have never heard of someone doing that before, admitting to one of the charges, but taking an Alford plea for another. We've talked before that an Alford plea is not admitting guilt. It's acknowledging that the

Starting point is 00:23:40 state would be able to prove that charge against you. So it sounds like Richard knew that it looked bad for him, as if he had been involved in the whole crime, but in the end, he only admitted to being an accessory and helping to transport and conceal Maria's remains. With all of the finger-pointing and each of them admitting that they were involved in some way, I don't think we can ever really know what happened. Under the plea deal, Richard was only sentenced to two to five years, which even for helping cover up a murder is an extremely light sentence. And it's even worse if what Bobby said he confessed to was true. However, during the time he was incarcerated,

Starting point is 00:24:17 he managed to commit another crime. He conspired with someone to commit unemployment insurance fraud. He had a friend of his file claims that stated he was looking for work and willing and able to work. Meanwhile, he was actually incarcerated. This fraud allowed him to collect unemployment while he was in prison. He was sentenced to another three to 10 years for that crime and was released in 2020. As we explained earlier, Richard died on May 24th, 2024, when Julie Bush hit him with her car. This was exactly 16 years from when Maria's body was discovered, May 28th, 2008. Maria's father, son, daughter, and grandkids deeply mourned her loss. Her family wrote in

Starting point is 00:25:01 her obituary that she was the most loving person you could have ever crossed paths with. If you knew her, you knew she had a heart of gold and would do anything for you. She wanted nothing more than to be with her grandchildren and show them love. When we share cases on the podcast, we want to have a larger reason for sharing the info with you. We don't just want it to be another tale of tragedy. We chose this case to illustrate how locking someone up isn't really going to make problems go away. It's pretty obvious that the deaths of Maria Marino and Richard Pinardo are tangled in layers of generational trauma and family dysfunction, along with substance use disorders and domestic violence. What began as a shocking scene on a downtown street in 2024

Starting point is 00:25:44 led us back nearly two decades to another senseless tragedy, one that tore apart a family and robbed a woman of her life and her children and grandchildren of a future with her. And it's hard not to walk away from this story without questions about what changes when someone serves time for a crime and what doesn't, and how cycles of violence span time and families, especially when they're never truly addressed. Richard served time for his role in covering up Maria's murder, but what he brought with him into his next relationship cost another life, his own. And while Julie Bush took a plea deal in his awaiting sentencing, we're still left wondering if anything ever really changes when deeper issues such as drug use, trauma, and failures of the criminal justice system fester. This isn't just a story of two crimes, it's the story of the consequences of

Starting point is 00:26:35 not intervening earlier and not doing more to prevent harm before it turns deadly. We want to acknowledge Maria's family, especially her children Desiree and Joe. They had to wait years for any kind of resolution. And now, 16 years later, they've watched one of the people involved in her murder die in a violent and public way, a person who was part of their family. At Sins and Survivors, we know these stories don't have clean endings, but they do deserve to be told completely and honestly. These stories reflect what happens when we fail to intervene, fail to believe victims, and fail to support healing and show how our community continues to suffer under the long shadow of trauma. If this story raised questions for you, please reach out to us on social media. Or if it brought up strong feelings, we encourage you to

Starting point is 00:27:20 reach out to any national or local resources. There is support available for those experiencing domestic violence and for families affected by trauma, substance use disorders, and mental health crises. You can find links in our show notes at sinspod.co slash resources. Thank you for listening as always, and remember, what happens here happens everywhere. Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod.co slash subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad-free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com.

Starting point is 00:28:25 If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty.

Starting point is 00:29:07 This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.

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Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Family Ties - The Murders of Maria Marino and Richard Penardo Jr.

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