Triano ex-wife's bond reduced to $4M

Murder suspect Pamela Phillips' bond was lowered to $4 million from $5 million at a hearing in Pima County Superior Court Monday.

Phillips' legal defender, Paul Eckerstrom, filed a motion to modify Phillips' terms of release in February.

In court Monday, Eckerstrom said Phillips' bond is excessive and asked that it be reduced to $100,000, an amount Phillips' family could meet.

Eckerstrom said Phillips is not a flight risk and that he believes her passport is in the custody of the state.

Prosecutors opposed the bond reduction, saying Phillips is a flight risk.

Phillips, 55, is accused of plotting the Nov. 1, 1996, death of her ex-husband, Tucson businessman Gary Triano.

Triano was killed in a pipe-bomb explosion in his car.

Eckerstrom told Judge Richard Fields that claims Phillips, who was indicted in 2008, was a fugitive are false.

He said Phillips was visiting her daughter in Switzerland when her indictment was filed, and she was advised by Swiss attorneys she could not return to the U.S. until a warrant for her arrest was issued.

He said that didn't happen until 2010.

During that time, Ronald Young was convicted of building and detonating the bomb, and was given two life sentences.

Phillips' defense attorneys told Fields they have evidence clearing Young of his role in the crime, and they have identified the person who ordered the hit on Triano, the person who built the bomb and witnesses at the crime scene who saw suspicious vehicles leaving the area after the bomb was detonated.

At the hearing, Triano's daughter, Heather Klindworth, asked Fields not to modify Phillips' conditions of release.

"Our lives have been modified enough, and we are missing an amazing man due to her actions," Klindworth said.

Phillips is set to go on trial in 2014.

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"Our lives have been modified enough, and we are missing an amazing man due to her actions."

Heather Klindworth, daughter of Gary Triano

Contact reporter Veronica Cruz at vcruz@azstarnet.com or at 573-4224.