Former Fair Grounds handicapper charged with second-degree murder
Myra Lewyn, Thoroughbred Times
Posted: 9/8/2006 4:59:29 PM

Vince Marinello, a longtime New Orleans television and radio personality who co-hosted Fair Grounds's simulcast handicapping show for 15 years, was in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Greta, Louisiana, on Friday morning under suicide watch after he was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife.

Mary Elizabeth Marinello, 45, was shot twice in the face in a parking lot in Old Metairie near New Orleans on August 31. Witnesses told police they saw a man with a bushy beard leaving that location on a bicycle, and investigators initially thought she was a robbery victim.

According to court documents, the couple was in the midst of a bitter divorce. Mary Elizabeth Marinello recently discovered that her husband might have been still married to his first wife when they married in October 2004.

Vince Marinello, 70, became a suspect in his wife's killing when police found out about the couple's divorce proceedings and that he allegedly purchased a mustache at a costume shop. Police also interviewed a gun dealer who can tie Marinello to rare ammunition used in the killing and said that Marinello's alibi is suspect.

Police say they found a checklist at Marinello's FEMA trailer that included entries for a beard, mustache, gun, and bicycle as well as a reminder to dispose of the gun—all things that could tie him to the crime.

Lenny Vangilder, Fair Grounds director of publicity, said Marinello last worked for the track during the 2004-'05 season. He co-hosted the track's simulcast show with Mike Diliberto. Marinello was most recently employed by WWL-AM as a talk show host.

Marinello's ties to New Orleans horse racing were not limited to the broadcast media. He was jockey Craig Perret's agent in the early 1970s at Fair Grounds, Arlington Park, and Monmouth Park. Perret, a New Orleans native, later won the 1990 Eclipse Award as outstanding jockey.

Marinello's bond is set at $250,000. If convicted, he faces a mandatory life sentence in prison.—Myra Lewyn