Gary Lee Triano (November 6, 1943 – November 1, 1996) was a millionaire

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to othe ...

from

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

who was killed in Catalina Foothills by a

pipe bomb A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device which uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively huge explos ...

explosion in his Lincoln Town Car on November 1, 1996. His former wife, Pamela Anne Phillips, a one-time

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

, real estate agent, and socialite, was charged with orchestrating her ex-husband's death. In a sensational trial nearly 18 years after Triano's murder, Phillips was convicted of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

and

conspiracy to commit murder Conspiracy to murder is a statutory offence defined by the intent to commit murder. England and Wales The offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and retained as ...

and was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

. Phillips, who is now incarcerated at the

Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville is one of 13 prison facilities operated by the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). ASPC-Perryville is located in Goodyear, Arizona. ASPC-Perryville's Lumley Unit houses the female death row. In ...

, claims that Triano's death was a

mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...

revenge killing. Ronald Young, who was hired by Phillips as a

hit man Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...

, also was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Background

Gary Triano was a longtime Tucson, Arizona resident. He graduated from

Rincon High School Rincon High School is a public high school in Tucson, Arizona. The school serves about 1,100 students in grades 9 to 12 in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). Since 1985, the campus has been shared with University High School, a separate ...

and earned a degree in accounting from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. He also attended the University of Arizona's law school. He married Mary Cram, and they had two children, Heather and Brian. Triano married his second wife, Pamela Phillips, on October 4, 1986 in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. During their marriage, the couple had two children, Trevor and Lois, before their bitter divorce in 1993. At the time of the divorce, Triano filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy, claiming $40 million in debt after several failed business dealings regarding Indian casinos. Phillips moved to

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...

with the couple's two children, where she continued her career in commercial real estate.

Murder

On November 1, 1996, Gary Triano was killed when a pipe bomb exploded in his car at the La Paloma Country Club in

Catalina Foothills, Arizona Catalina Foothills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located north of Tucson in Pima County, Arizona, United States. Situated in the southern foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Catalina Foothills had a p ...

. Within weeks, the investigation centered around his ex-wife Pamela Phillips, who was still living in Aspen. It was discovered that she had taken out a $2 million life insurance policy on Triano shortly before his death. The couple's two children were the beneficiaries of the policy, which was paid out to Phillips in 1997. Evidence also linked Phillips to Ronald Young, a small-time criminal with whom Phillips developed a relationship while in Aspen. Shortly before the bombing, a van rented by Young was found abandoned in Yorba Linda, California, and inside the vehicle there were documents pertaining to Phillips and Triano's divorce, a map of Tucson, Arizona, and a

sawed-off shotgun A sawed-off shotgun (also called a sawn-off shotgun, short-barreled shotgun, shorty or a boom stick) is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel—typically under —and often a shortened or absent stock. Despite the colloquial term, ...

. Nine years after the murder, on November 19, 2005, an episode of '' America's Most Wanted'' profiled Ronald Young, who was then wanted for forgery and embezzlement. The episode also mentioned his suspected involvement in Triano's death. Two days later, Young was apprehended in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He served a 10-month sentence in federal prison for weapon possession before being extradited back to Aspen. Following Young's arrest, investigators found records of phone calls and email correspondence between Young and Phillips related to Triano's murder. In 2008, Ronald Young was charged with the murder of Gary Triano. On December 3, 2009, Pamela Phillips was also arrested for Triano's murder in

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, when she fled after her indictment in October 2008. She was later returned to the United States to stand trial.

Trials

Ronald Young went to trial for Gary Triano's murder in 2010. Prosecutors showed records that Phillips agreed to give Young $400,000 to kill her ex-husband. Also introduced into evidence were the tapes and recordings outlining the conspiracy. At the conclusion of his trial, Young was convicted of

and

. He was sentenced to two life terms. Following her extradition to Arizona to stand trial, Pamela Phillips was held on $5 million bond at the

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the populati ...

Jail. In December 2011, she was initially ruled

mentally incompetent In United States and Canadian law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Comp ...

for trial. In October 2012, she was ruled competent to stand trial after undergoing treatment at the jail. Phillips' trial began in 2014 and lasted for seven weeks. Prosecutors used similar evidence in her trial that was used to convict Young. Phillips was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy. Like Young, she was also sentenced to life in prison; she has no possibility for parole.

In the media

The murder of Gary Triano has been televised on several programs, including ''

Dateline NBC ''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasio ...

'', ''Dateline on ID'', '' 48 Hours'', ''

Snapped ''Snapped'' is an American true crime television series produced by Jupiter Entertainment. The series depicts high profile or bizarre cases of women accused of murder. Each episode outlines the motivation for murder, whether it be revenge agai ...

'', ''

American Greed ''American Greed'' (also known as ''American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals'' and as ''American Greed: Scams, Schemes and Broken Dreams'') is an American documentary television series on CNBC. The series focuses on cases of Ponzi schemes, ...

'' (2015 episode "A Widow's Web"), ''

Fatal Vows ''Fatal Vows'' is an American documentary television series on Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime document ...

'' and ''Vengeance: Killer Millionaires''. In January 2012, the case was a subject of a true crime book by Kerie Droban.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Triano, Gary 1996 in Arizona 1996 murders in the United States 2010 in Arizona 2014 in Arizona Car and truck bombings in the United States Crimes in Arizona Deaths by car bomb in the United States Deaths by person in Arizona History of Pima County, Arizona Mariticides Murder in Arizona November 1996 crimes in the United States Real estate and property developers