Ferri found guilty in triple-murder case; sentenced to 3 life terms

The man on trial for the deaths of three people near Las Cruces has been found guilty of murder and has been sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.

Eugene “Gino” Ferri was on trial for the 2010 deaths of Gille Delisle, Helga Delisle, and Peter Weith.

Ferri took the stand on Tuesday and denied killing the three people.

The homicides took place three years ago in Mesilla Hills, near Las Cruces. The defense on Tuesday showed a series of receipts and phone records as evidence that Ferri was somewhere else at the time of the homicides.

Investigators allege Ferri shot Gille and Helga Delisles and their business partner, Peter Weith, the night before they were supposed to appear at a court hearing. The four were involved in lawsuits against each other for large amounts of money and property.

The jury found Ferri guilty of all seven charges against him: three counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated burglary with a firearm, one count of unlawful taking of a vehicle, and two counts of tampering with evidence.

It only took the jury two hours and 45 minutes to reach that decision.

Ferri’s attorney Gary Mitchell was upset about the quick decision.

“It’s obvious to me their minds were made up before closing so it didn’t matter. I was frankly wasting my time and theirs, apparently,” Mitchell said.

“The detectives did their job. They did it well and they found the truth. The truth came out today,” said Scot Key, the lead prosecutor in the trial.

Prosecutors did not have enough to arrest Ferri until a year after the murders. Now, two years later, family and friends of the victims have closure.

“It’s been a long two weeks. We’re very happy for the families of Peter Weith and Gilles and Helga Deslisle,” Key said.

Ferri showed no reaction as he listened to the verdicts.

A judge sentenced Ferri to the maximum: three life sentences to run one after the other. That adds up to 90 years in prison.

“I expected that. That’s what judges do in these type of cases,” Mitchell said.

“You have a mass murder such as this and it deserves the heavy hand of the court,” said Key.

This kind of conviction gets an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Mitchell said there are several points he will bring up in the appeal.

“When I see things like this that frustrates me, it angers me because our system is supposed to work differently than this,” he said.

Prosecutors said they’re glad this case is closed.

Last week, the state’s key witness, Ricky Huckabay, testified he dropped Ferri off at the Deslisles’ home the day of the murders.

Huckabay said he was renting property from Ferri for months before the murders. Huckabay said he and Ferri had become good friends.

Huckabay also testified that Ferri bragged about committing the murders.

Ferri’s attorney Gary Mitchell asked Ferri if he ever told Huckabay he committed the homicides. Ferri said no. Ferri denied all of Huckabay’s testimony, adamant that he never met Huckabay that day and was with his mother and his accountant at different parts of the day.

Ferri’s mother and accountant took the stand earlier in the day to testify he was with them.

The case is being tried by prosecutors from the Otero County District Attorney’s office because there was a conflict of interest with the Dona Ana County district attorney.

Former Dona Ana County District Attorney Amy Orlando is a special prosecutor in this trial.

Huckabay said Ferri would keep tabs on Gille Deslisle before the homicides.

Orlando got Ferri to admit he paid an ex-Verizon Wireless employee to get access to Gilles Deslisle’s phone bills.

Ferri also admitted to lying while under oath during previous hearings for divorce bankruptcy.

“So you admit you’ll use people to get what you want?” Orlando asked.

“As everybody does,” Ferri replied.

“And you’ll lie to get what you want?” Orlando asked.

“I’ll lie to protect what’s not right,” Ferri said.

Ferri also said he had nothing to gain from killing the victims.

Ferri was arrested on April 8, 2011 in El Paso, Texas and was charged with concealing encumbered property after authorities said they discovered he had $1 million worth of animal trophies in his possession.

Dona Ana County Sheriff’s officials said the weapon that was used in the shooting deaths was a Cobray SW 9 mm semiautomatic gun — a weapon described by a sheriff’s sergeant as being similar to an Uzi. Officials said the weapon was found in the septic tank at La Llorona Park in Las Cruces, N.M. in the weeks before Ferri’s arrest.

Dona Ana County sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of Gilles and Helga Delisles, along with Peter Weith, shot to death inside the Delisles’ Mesilla Hills home on the morning of April 15, 2010. Sheriff’s officials said Gilles was found face down in the kitchen with several gunshot wounds, his wife was found five feet away with a gunshot to the head, and Weith was found with a gunshot wound to the head in a bathroom at the south end of the home.

Sheriff’s deputies said the homicides happened on or about April 14, 2010.

Orlando told ABC-7 in 2011 that Huckabay met with Ferri the night of April 14, 2010, and dropped Ferri off at the Delisles’ home before the witness left the scene.

Huckabay met with Ferri later that night and said Ferri was driving the Delisles’ white Pathfinder, according to Orlando. Orlando said Ferri then instructed Huckabay to follow him and they left the Pathfinder in front of the sheriff’s office where it was discovered days later.
Orlando said Huckabay and Ferri talked later that night and that Ferri told the witness that what he did at the Delisles’ home “felt good to him.”

Court documents from 2008 state Gilles Delisle represented Weith in a bankruptcy case involving Las Cruces resident Carol Ferri. According to case records, Carol’s son, Gino, controlled her finances, and owed as much as $1.3 million to Weith for three investment properties.

Days before investigators found the bodies of the Delisle and Weith, a judge agreed to change Carol Ferri’s bankruptcy claim from Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation, according to documents. It was a request Delisle made on behalf of Weith.