Family Ties - The Murders of Maria Marino and Richard Penardo Jr.

Episode # 75 - Family Ties: The Murders of Maria Marino and Richard Penardo

[Shaun] 

Sometimes, a news story seems to be a simple, straightforward tragic case of someone injured in a car accident. That's where we start today, but as we dig deeper, we find not only a tangled mess of jealousy and domestic violence but another related case from almost two decades ago.

[John] 

Yup, once we started digging into what happened with Richard Penardo and Julie Dean Bush in May of 2024 here in Las Vegas, it was like peeling back the layers of an onion. It turned out to be a case of some seemingly very troubled people, drug use, various deadly weapons.. And it tied back to another case from 2008

[Shaun] 

This one left us with some pretty complex reactions, and we were reminded that justice isn't always a straight line.

(Music - Pause for 8 seconds)

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun

[John] 

And I’m your co-host, John

[Shaun] 

This case originally seemed to be simply a case of a car accident where someone sadly lost their life, something that’s unfortunately very common in Las Vegas. As of our recording date, there have been 46 traffic deaths this year, and there were 293 last year.

Obviously, that’s not something we’d normally cover; that's more the job of the nightly news, but the initial reporting was pretty quickly replaced with the news that these two people were in a relationship, so we knew we needed to do some more research.

In fact even after getting to a resolution on this case, we realized there was even more to the story. As we learned about our victim we realized there was another case we needed to research from 16 years ago, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

Do you want to start us out on our first case?

[John] 

This case happened pretty recently compared with a lot of the cases we’ve covered. It happened near the downtown / Fremont Street area about 2 miles east of the Stratosphere at 17th and Bonita. That’s the very same area where Karla Rodriguez went missing in 1999.

That area has been a bit economically distressed for a while because Las Vegas and Henderson have tended to grow out, creating new neighborhoods rather than rehabbing the older neighborhoods. 

They don't seem to want to spend the money on the older neighborhoods, which is a huge shame because there are some amazing homes all around that area.

There are exceptions, but there’s definitely a well-known problem of sprawl here.

Police responded to a 911 call from someone saying that a person had intentionally hit a pedestrian with their car, and that was their initial assessment of what happened as well. 

The driver was identified as 30-year-old Julie Dean Bush.

According to court documents we obtained, it was an absolutely wild scene, and the victim was in fact her boyfriend of about a year, a 51-year-old man named Richard Penardo Jr

The records indicate that they were involved in a fight, which was called out as a domestic violence incident that started with an argument for a reason I don't think we’ve ever heard before

[Shaun] 

Yeah, I think that’s true. Apparently, and again, according to court documents and news reporting, Julie said that she had found tampons in the trash that weren't hers, and she confronted her boyfriend Penardo over them.

The argument escalated into a screaming match and spilled outside into the street. Julie got into her car and drove into Penardo’s truck, possibly several times, and then left the area.. But came back a few minutes later.

Penardo came outside with a long steel chain wrapped around his arm, and he started swinging it at Julie’s car, denting it, scratching it, and breaking her windows.

That was when she decided (unconsciously or not) to turn the car into a deadly weapon, aiming it at him but hitting ANOTHER vehicle in her attempt to hit him, then attempting to hit him again. She finally struck him when she was backing up

Witnesses say she hit him so hard that he flew through the air and slammed into a brick wall. Not only were there witnesses, but the entire incident was also captured on a Ring Doorbell camera. 

When I heard that description and the long list of people and evidence of what had happened, I had a feeling I knew where this would be going when it finally got to court

[John] 

Same here. It’s hard to imagine how someone can just snap like that

[Shaun] 

It seems like Julie somewhat came to her senses, and she seemed to know what she’d done because, according to witnesses, when the police and paramedics arrived, she was leaning over Penardo, crying hysterically.

Penardo was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, and the police searched Julie’s vehicle, and what they found didn't make things any better for her. They found a bag of methamphetamine and a bag of fentanyl.

When Julie was talking to the police after the incident, she actually said that she “took some fentanyl” that day before the argument took place.

Police charged her with attempted murder, DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm, domestic battery resulting in substantial bodily harm, and drug possession

Unfortunately, Penardo died the next day from his injuries, and the charges were upgraded to open murder with the use of a deadly weapon (that’s a category A felony), and DUI with alcohol and/or a controlled or prohibited substance resulting in death (that’s a category B felony)

[John] 

Julie was remanded to Clark County Detention Center and was initially held without bail until the bail hearing on May 25th. Because that was also the day that Penardo died, the hearing was delayed, and it ended up happening 5 days later on the 30th

When she finally appeared in the Las Vegas Justice court, it was with a public defender named Lisa Chamlee-Brainard and it was before Judge Noreen Demonte, and it did not go well. Her public defender asked for bail to be set at $15,000. 

The assigned prosecutor, Sarah Overly, requested a much higher bail of $500,000, taking into account the murder, the drug possession, and the drug use.

Judge Demonte shocked everyone in the courtroom when she set bail at a whopping $750,000 which was nothing that Julie could ever pay for.

Her lawyer, Lisa asked the judge to take Julie’s ability to pay into account and when setting bail, and Judge Demonte replied that she HAD taken it into account. She said “I am setting bail at an amount that I believe she can't afford” and also said that if the bail WAS paid, she would require “high-level electronic monitoring.”. 

In the end, she couldn't pay the bail and remained in CCDC custody until her trial could start.

Namonte went on to say that she thought the facts of the case are “incredibly terrifying,” and I think we can say we agree with that

[Shaun] 

Absolutely, we do, but if the judge wanted her held without bail, she could have ordered that. I often think of bail as just a placeholder. It needs to mean the defendant is putting up enough money that they just can’t walk away from, that they wouldn’t dare skip town and avoid prosecution. 

It’s pretty surprising to me that the judge purposely did that to hold Julie to trial, mostly because she was angry? Disgusted? With what Julie had ALLEGEDLY done. 

Julie was set to be arraigned on June 27th, 2024, and a trial was set for May 5th, 2025. She appeared a few more times in court in preparation for the trial, but then on March 20th, 2025, before the trial started, Julie agreed to a plea deal.

Julie pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter with the use of a deadly weapon, a Category B felony, and driving under the influence, resulting in death. 

Her sentencing has been set for June 27th, but based on the plea deal ,we have an idea of what to expect.

For voluntary manslaughter, a range of 8 to 20 years was recommended with the possibility of parole after 1 year and a maximum of 10 years. Plus for the deadly weapon enhancement, they’re recommending a consecutive term of a minimum term of 1 year and a maximum of 10 years.

For the DUI resulting in death, the state agreed not to argue for a minimum term of more than 6 years, and a maximum of no more than 15 years with the possibility of parole after 2 years and a maximum of 20 years.

There was also a fine of $2000 -$5000 for the DUI.

So, that’s a lot, but in the end, it will be up to the judge, and we’ll be sure to update you on what she’s actually sentenced to in June.

[John] 

We talk a lot about how the news doesn't seem to do a good job covering cases like this, and it was especially bad in this case. There was very little coverage outside of the sensational headlines about how Julie Bush was going to stand trial for intentionally running over her boyfriend Richard Penardo Jr because of a fight that started when she found someone else's tampons in their trash.

That was about it, though. We have some theories about why that might be, but we’ll save that for the Swing Shift bonus episode. If you want to hear those, head over to sinspod.co/subscribe and also email us to let us know what you think. 

We always share our sources so you can check out those news articles yourself.

Since we knew very little about the victim and the murderer (note.. not an “alleged” murderer since she took a plea deal), we decided to look into Richard Penardo Jr to see what we could learn about him and his past.

The fact that he came out of the house swinging a steel chain told us that there might be some past behavior we have to consider when thinking about how we feel about what happened between him and Julie. Nothing justifies her actions, but that might give them some context.

So, we started digging, and what we realized was there was a very very disturbing case that Penardo was involved with over 16 years ago, also here in Las Vegas. 

[Shaun] 

Richard Penardo had a significant criminal history, with multiple arrests for misdemeanor and felony domestic violence, including assault with a deadly weapon, most of these from 2003, 2004. 

As John said, the most disturbing fact is that less than 5 miles from where he was killed, and almost exactly 16 years earlier - to the day – Richard was involved in the murder of a 52-year-old Las Vegas mother, Maria Marino.

Maria Marino was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 8, 1955, to her parents, Alfred and Maria Ross. Maria was, as you can tell, named after her mother. 

She moved to Las Vegas in the late 1980s. She married Joseph Marino, who sadly passed away in 2004, and the two of them had two children, Desiree and Joe Junior. 

Maria had a younger sister named Dolores, which family members said she had a serious sibling rivalry with. Dolores had two children with her husband Robert Petrozzino: Bobby (Robert Junior) and Stefanie. 

That marriage didn’t last, and in 1995, Delores married Richard Penardo. 

[John] 

Alfred and Maria were generous people, and they were happy to help their kids whenever they could.  Al especially loved the idea of the family all living together, and because of that, they offered that their daughters, their boyfriends or husbands, and their kids could move in with them in their home on the east side of Las Vegas.

Both daughters ended up taking them up on that offer at various times, and when they did, there was a lot of fighting because Maria and Delores had NEVER gotten along well.

They fought as children, and now back living in the same house, they fought a lot as adults. There was one incident where they ended up throwing glasses at each other allegedly, and to “de-escalate the situation”, Al apparently took out a shotgun to try and calm everyone down.

I'm not sure how bringing a gun into the mix was a great idea to de-escalate the situation, but it seemed to work for him in that case.

Their mother passed away in 2000, and Maria moved back in with her father to help care for him and manage the household. It seems possible that Maria’s and her dad’s close relationship, along with her being in charge of his finances, added to the bad blood between Maria and Delores.

Al owned his own business selling fire suppression systems to casinos, and both Delores and Maria worked with him, helping with the day-to-day running of the business and keeping the books.

According to family members, Al’s business partner raised questions about missing revenue, and he accused Dolores of being responsible. This of course, caused a huge argument, and Dolores moved out yet again. 

The sisters were the only ones having problems at that time. Dolores’s son Bobby was in and out of prison around this time for various things, including attempted burglary, theft, and stealing cars. 

In 2005, when he was paroled, Maria allegedly threatened to report him for parole violations and get him locked up again.  It's pretty obvious there was some bad blood

Multiple members of the family– Dolores, Stefanie, Bobby, and, as we said, Richard Penardo – had a laundry list of various criminal charges ranging from petty theft misdemeanors to felonies such as drug charges, battery, grand theft, and assault. 

Dolores also went through treatment for breast cancer, which added even more stress to the family.

All of this paints a picture of a family dynamic where saying there was a lot of tension would be an understatement. 

[Shaun] 

As with all the stories we share on Sins & Survivors, we want to present you with a complete picture and as much background as we can. 

We don’t have solid information available on what the motive was for Maria’s murder, but we wanted to share what was being talked about as the possible family dynamics at play. 

That said, that brings us to May 26, 2008, which was Memorial Day. By this point in their lives, Maria’s children were both adults and not living with her. 

Maria was still living with her dad and helping him out, and Delores and Stefanie were living in the home at that time, too. 

Bobby, as he did, was serving time at the High Desert State Prison. 

To celebrate Memorial Day, Al and Maria were both expected to attend a get-together at a relative’s house, however, no one was sure where Maria was, including her kids, Desiree and Joe Jr. 

Desiree was out of town on vacation and thought that Maria was spending the holiday with her brother, Joe. Meanwhile, Joe thought that his mom was with Desiree. Neither of them was aware that no one had seen their mom for a few days. 

Two days later, on May 28, a body that we now know to be Maria's was found off Lee Canyon Road, the main road leading up to Mount Charleston. 

The woman was wearing pajamas and had two names tattooed on her legs, Desiree and Joe. 

However, Metro didn’t have any missing persons reports matching her description, but it was obvious to them that she had been violently murdered in the past week.

She had been beaten and strangled with a wire, possibly from a home stereo speaker

When the investigators ran Maria’s fingerprints, they were able to identify her quickly since her fingerprints were on record with the gaming commission. 

What happened next is a bit strange. But I think it’s obvious that Las Vegas Metro police were trying to investigate her murder without tipping their hand to any family members.

[John]

What makes you think that?

[Shaun]

Well, Metro knew that Maria had family in Vegas, but no one had reported her missing. They went to talk to Desiree, who said she was having dinner at home with her brother when the police came by. 

They asked her about Maria being missing, which was news to both her and her brother. They were both pretty confused and unsure of what was going on. 

The police decided not to tell them that Maria had been found, and definitely did not tell them that she was deceased. So, this sounds shady to me, and I think they were trying to feel out the kids and see if they would say something that would help the investigation or implicate themselves if they had something to do with it. 

When the police left, Desiree told her brother that she had an awful feeling, similar to the feeling she had when their father had died. She picked up the phone and dialed the Clark County Coroner’s office, who confirmed that, sadly, yes, Maria had been found, and her remains were at their office. 

[John] 

The police questioned the family (Dolores, Stefanie, Al, Richard)… and searched the house, but found no evidenc they could use, apparently, and no DNA was found except Maria’s, despite all the people living in the house. That in itself is very strange to me.

Detectives later said that despite multiple searches, they never found any physical evidence tying any suspect directly to Maria’s killing or any evidence that would prove an attack took place at the family’s home.

As we mentioned, Bobby was in prison at this time, and the police went to the prison and questioned him as well

He told them that he didn’t know anything about his aunt’s murder and had nothing to offer them that would help their investigation. 

Nearly three and a half years later, Metro finally stated they had collected enough evidence to charge not one but THREE people with Maria’s murder: 

They charged Stephanie, her niece, her sister Delores, and her ex-brother-in-law, none other than the victim in our first case, Richard Penardo

According to the arrest reports, at different times, each of them in some way had admitted guilt of the crime. 

For example, while Stefanie was serving time at the Clark County Detention Center for a misdemeanor charge in December 2008. She allegedly told another inmate that “she had to kill her aunt with her bare hands.”

Its pretty understandable why the police didn't arrest Stefanie based just on that statement. It’s hard to know how credible the other inmate was. 

It was reported in the news that two of Stephanie’s friends told police back in June of 2008 that she had approached them asking for help to hide her aunt’s body who was apparently, at the time, in the trunk of her car

They also told police that she said she had strangled Maria with a speaker wire. That was incredibly incriminating because the police had purposely never disclosed the discovery of the wire to anyone, and when police questioned Stefanie about that specific fact, she ended the interview. 

It’s still not clear why the police did not arrest Stefanie based on these statements, but as the detectives said, they didn’t have DNA or even a definitive crime scene. 

Lastly, the day before Maria’s body was found, Stefanie called her boyfriend in jail. Obviously, phone calls made to jails and prisons are recorded, but somehow people seem to forget that. 

When she was talking to him, she told him that she expected to be locked up soon and said something to the effect of, "I may never see you again'

Even with all of this circumstantial evidence, Stephanie wasn't arrested until 2012 when they had more evidence against everyone in the family they thought was involved.

[Shaun] 

As the police said, all three of them at one point or another had said something incriminating. There was a witness who told police that 5 days before Maria disappeared, Dolores said, "That (expletive) is gonna be dead in seven days.” 

For this statement, I can actually understand why the police wouldn’t arrest someone just for exclaiming something like that. I don’t think it’s uncommon for people to say things like that out of anger or frustration. 

However, all of this came together in 2011, due to Bobby Petrozzino.

In 2011, Bobby was once again in prison. It’s unclear exactly why or if there was a deal on the table for Bobby to cooperate, but this time, when the police talked to him, he had a lot to say. 

According to the arrest report, although Bobby told police in 2008 that his mother and sister had nothing to do with his aunt’s murder, he later implicated both of them after "he realized what happened was wrong.” 

He told police that on May 22, 2008, his mom called him at the prison. Of course that call was recorded and during the call, Dolores told him, "There's not gonna be anymore problems when you come home. I just had a discussion with my friend that kept giving us a hard time, and she's not gonna give us a hard time anymore."

Bobby was pretty confident his mom was talking about his Aunt Maria, but when he asked her if that’s who she meant, Dolores got annoyed at him. 

He also told police that his stepdad, Richard, had called him at prison and asked him if it was raining. His mother had also asked him to call her if it was raining at the prison. 

This one stumped me a little bit, I don’t know if they were relieved or troubled by the idea of the rain. But the Review Journal explained that the prison is near Mount Charleston, where Maria’s remains were later discovered. It sounds like maybe they were hoping the rain would delay her being found or perhaps cover up any evidence. 

[John] 

Bobby also told police that Richard admitted to killing Maria. He told him that he had hit Maria with a fire extinguisher and strangled her with a wire. He also told police that Stefanie had admitted to him that she had to “finish something Dolores had started”. 

According to the Review Journal, after 3 years of finger-pointing from friends and family, the information against them had finally piled up.

Police weren’t sure about the motive for the crime. Witnesses said that it was likely her death was financially motivated, possibly tied to a rumor that Al was about to receive a large settlement from a lawsuit. They also believed that Dolores may have wanted to control the money that Maria had managed for many years. 

Homicide Lt. Ray Steiber credited Detective Robert Rogers for the arrests, which he said was a result of Rogers being persistent and meticulous in collecting evidence over the years. 

He said, "He was dedicated to solving this murder, truly relentless. In the end, we obtained the probable cause required."

Richard, Dolores, and Stefanie were all charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder with the use of a deadly weapon. 

There were no trials held – all 3 of them ended up taking plea deals.

So, knowing all of this, we are left wondering how the police weren't able to find any forensic evidence at the scene, given that all of their stories seem to agree that Maria was killed in the home. 

It seems like if they had used Luminol, and maybe even checked the home stereo speakers to see if any of them were missing wires, that would have been a good start.

[Shaun] 

Dolores pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 6 to 16 years, and served about 6. 

In 2013, Stefanie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She was sentenced to Life with the possibility of parole after 10 Years, and 

36 months to 96 Months for the deadly weapon enhancement. As of April of 2025, she is still incarcerated with a parole hearing scheduled for the end of April. If we have any updates, we will be sure to share them with you all.

And finally, Richard Penardo. In 2013, Richard pleaded guilty to Accessory to murder and; pursuant to an Alford plea, also pleaded to conspiracy to commit murder. 

When we were researching this case, we found that sometimes it was mentioned that Richard plead guilty and sometimes it was mentioned that he took an Alford plea, so I did take a look at the court records and found that it is only with regards to the second charge – conspiracy to commit murder – that he took an Alford plea. 

[John] 

I’ve never heard of someone doing that before – admitting to one of the charges but taking an Alford plea for another. 

We’ve talked before that an Alford plea isn’t admitting guilt it’s acknowledging that the State would be able to prove that charge against you. 

This sounds like Richard knew it looked bad, as if he had been involved in the whole crime, but in the end, he only admitted to being an accessory and helping to transport and conceal Maria’s remains. 

With all of the finger-pointing and each of them admitting that they were involved in some way, I don’t think we can ever know what really happened. 

[Shaun] 

Under the plea deal, Richard was only sentenced to 2 to 5 years, which even for helping cover up a murder is an extremely light sentence, and it’s even worse if what Bobby said he confessed to was true. 

However, during the time he was incarcerated, he managed to commit another crime. 

He conspired with someone to commit unemployment insurance fraud. He had a friend of his file claims that stated he was looking for work and willing and able to work, meanwhile, he was actually incarcerated. 

This fraud allowed him to collect unemployment while he was in prison. He was sentenced to another 3-10 years for that crime and was released in 2020. 

As we explained earlier, Richard died on May 24, 2024 when Julie Bush hit him with her car. This was exactly 16 years from when Maria’s body was discovered, May 28, 2008. 

Maria’s father, daughter, son, and grandkids deeply mourned her loss. Her family wrote in her obituary that she was the most loving person you could have ever crossed paths with. If you knew her, you knew she had a heart of gold and would do anything for you. She wanted nothing more than to be with her grandchildren and show them love.

[John]

When we share stories on the podcast, we want to have a larger reason for sharing the info with you. We don’t just want it to be another tale of tragedy. We chose this case to illustrate how locking someone up isn’t going to make problems go away. 

It’s pretty obvious that the deaths of Maria Marino and Richard Penardo are tangled in layers of generational trauma and family dysfunction, along with substance use disorders and domestic violence. 

What began as a shocking scene on a downtown street in 2024 led us back nearly two decades to another senseless tragedy… one that tore apart a family and robbed a woman of her life and her children and grandchildren of a future with her. 

[Shaun]

And, it’s hard not to walk away from this story without questions. About what changes when someone serves time for a crime and what doesn’t, and how cycles of violence span time and families, especially when they’re never truly addressed. 

Richard served time for his role in covering up Maria’s murder, but what he brought with him into his next relationship cost another life, his own.

[John]

And while Julie Bush took a plea deal and is awaiting sentencing, we’re still left wondering if anything ever really changes when deeper issues, such as drug use, trauma, and failures of the criminal justice system fester. 

This isn’t just a story of two crimes. It’s a story about the consequences of not intervening earlier and not doing more to prevent harm before it turns deadly.

[Shaun]

We want to acknowledge Maria’s family, especially her children, Desiree and Joe. They had to wait years for any kind of resolution. 

And now, nearly 16 years later, they’ve watched one of the people involved in her murder die in a violent and public way – a person who was part of their family. 

[John]

At Sins and Survivors, we know these stories don’t have clean endings. But they deserve to be told, completely and honestly. 

These stories reflect what happens when we fail to intervene, fail to believe victims, and fail to support healing, and show how our community continues to suffer under the long shadow of trauma. 

[Shaun]

If this story raised questions for you, please reach out to us on social media. Or, If it brought up strong feelings, we encourage you to reach out to any national or local resources. 

There is support available for those experiencing domestic violence and for families affected by trauma, substance use disorder, or mental health crises. You can find links in our show notes and at sinspod.co/resources. 

[John]

Thank you for listening, and remember: what happens here, happens everywhere.