Ex-firefighter’s police statement next up in hitman case

Trial has resumed for a former Las Vegas firefighter accused of convincing a homeless handyman to kill his estranged wife in a September 2012 hammer attack.

Pennix also rated confessed killer Noel Scott Stevens as a 1.5 on a 10-point believability scale.

A photo of Shauna Tiaffay, right, is displayed on a screen over the shoulder of George Tiaffay in court Tuesday, August 25, 2015, in Las Vegas.

George Tiaffay, 43, was arrested in 2012 in connection to the death of his wife Shauna Tiaffay.

State prosecutors laid out how George Tiaffay helped Stevens purchase the hammer and clothes he wore on the night of the killing.

Tiaffay’s defense attorney said the only suspect should be Stevens who admitted to the crime. They reported finding jeans with blood that matched Shauna Tiaffay in one of Stevens’ tents, a key to her apartment in a shed that Stevens sometimes used, a dress and swimsuit bottom in Shauna Tiaffay’s size, and a ski mask with holes cut for eyes.

As police prepared to interview George Tiaffay, he was badly injured behind the wheel of a speeding pickup truck that slammed into a concrete retaining wall.

The defense attorney said he’ll provide for the jury reasonable doubt that George Tiaffay was involved.

George Tiaffay faces life in prison if he’s convicted.

Stevens made $600 (£382) by having a friend pawn Shauna Tiaffay’s engagement ring, the prosecutor said, and told various people he’d been promised thousands of dollars for her killing. In documents, Stevens told police he usually did odd jobs for the firefighter.

That same day, Stevens, who went by the name Greyhound, bragged about the slaying to someone who contacted police, DiGiacomo said.

But he still lived in a homeless camp in the desert outside Las Vegas.