Ninja-style attacker's identity, motives remain a mystery
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Ninja-style attacker's identity, motives remain a mystery
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
ninja vanish
(03-01) 17:10 PST HEALDSBURG -- Police investigators looking into the shooting death of a ninja-style assailant at a semirural home in Healdsburg say they have not yet been able to identify the masked intruder or to establish a motive for his actions.
The intruder was shot dead Monday morning by former tribal and Nevada gaming executive Louis J. Phillips, shortly after the man attacked Phillipps' wife, Sandra, outside their home on Sunset Drive, police said. The man struggled with her and chased her inside, where Louis Phillips opened fire with his .357-caliber Magnum handgun.
"We don't have a motive for the attack," Police Chief Susan Jones said. "And we'd feel a whole lot better if we could identify the intruder."
Jones described the dead assailant as a white man, about 35 to 40 years old. He was armed with a revolver and carried no identification. The man was dressed from head to toe in black, including a black mask and black leather gloves, Jones said.
The chief said police had submitted the dead man's fingerprints to the criminal databases of various law enforcement agencies, but so far there has been no match. Authorities are also trying to trace the serial number of the intruder's gun. If needed, investigators plan to submit dental records and DNA evidence for analysis.
"We have some leads," said Jones, who has six officers working on the case along with investigators from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department and district attorney's office. "We're holding out hope that if this guy had family, maybe they'll call in a missing person (report), and if he had nobody, maybe his mail will start piling up and someone will call in."
Louis Phillips, 68, has been involved in the Nevada, California and Colorado gaming industries for decades. He could not be reached for comment.
In January 2000, Phillips became chief executive officer of Viejas Enterprises, which is owned by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. The tribe runs one of California's largest and most successful Indian gaming operations.
Viejas Enterprises operates the Viejas Casino, a 300,000-square-foot gaming colossus in the Alpine area of San Diego County, as well as a factory outlet center with dozens of name-brand retail stores and restaurants. Viejas Enterprises also owns Borrego Springs Bank, a recreational vehicle park and a small television station.
Phillips' major contribution was the development in 2000 of a Vegas-style gambling ship that ran excursions from San Diego to Mexico. It was the first such deal between a Native American tribe and a cruise line, but the venture quickly went belly up.
Viejas tribal spokeswoman Jenny Rohrauff said that Phillips, who served as a tribal consultant before he was named chief executive officer of Viejas Enterprises, is no longer affiliated with the tribe.
"He wasn't here very long," Rohrauff said. "As I recall, it wasn't even a year."
Phillips is also a former president and chief operating officer of Harrah's northern Nevada hotel and casino operations as well as ex-general manager of the firm's Reno and Lake Tahoe casinos. He also worked on a development for the company in Colorado, a gaming project in Auckland, New Zealand, and other projects overseas.
Phillips left Harrah's in June 1995 to teach gaming management for five years at the University of Nevada in Reno. At the time, Harrah's pledged $250,000 over five years to underwrite his professorship.
Property records indicate that the Phillipses paid $1.36 million for their home in Healdsburg in September 2003.
"I believe they paid cash, or took out a very small loan," said Deke Dekay, a Healdsburg real estate agent who used to live in the home and sold it to the Phillipses.
Chronicle researcher Johnny Miller contributed to this report.