| Employer Calls Ricci a Model Worker |
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 |
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE As police continue to piece together the movements of parolee Richard Albert Ricci near the time of Elizabeth Smart's disappearance, his boss on Tuesday called Ricci a model employee who was prompt, knowledgeable and never missed a day of work. "I have no complaints whatsoever about his work," said Lee Mitchell, owner of Mitchell's Nursery, 2184 E. 3300 South. Ricci, 48, is on the "top of the list" of potential suspects in the 14-year-old's June 5 disappearance. Police say they cannot verify his alibi for that night -- that he was home with his wife -- and they are not sure where he was between May 31 and June 8. Ricci denies any involvement in the abduction. Arrested June 14 on a parole violation, Ricci was returned Monday to Utah State Prison. Mitchell said Ricci worked most of the days between May 31 and June 8 on a schedule of five days on, two days off. He said he met Ricci 12 years ago, when the nursery owner taught a "Green Thumb" class to prison inmates. Ricci was serving a sentence for shooting a police officer with a sawed-off shotgun during a pharmacy break-in and the separate robbery of a fast food restaurant. He was most recently paroled in September 2000 and worked as a handyman at the Smarts' home last year. Ricci asked Mitchell for a job in mid-May and was hired to work in the store's greenhouse. "He did an excellent job," Mitchell said. "He was very good with the customers, and the cashiers and fellow workers liked him very well." Police initially interviewed Ricci the day after the abduction, but re-interviewed him last week. On Tuesday, Ricci's wife, Angela Ricci, said she was with him on the morning that Elizabeth vanished. "He's a wonderful man; there's no way he did this," she said. Mitchell said Ricci worked on June 4 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The next day he had a scheduled day off, and worked June 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Ricci did painting and yard work at the Smart residence for two months last spring. He was familiar with the children and their Federal Heights home, police and family members have said. Ricci was fired after he and several workers fell under suspicion for stealing from the Smarts, police said. But no charges were ever filed, said Salt Lake City police Sgt. Fred Louis. Edward Smart gave Ricci a 1990 white Jeep Cherokee as payment for his services. The last time the two spoke was in September or October, when Ricci came by to pick up the Jeep's title. Smart said Ricci was not angry when the two parted, nor does he believe Ricci was out for revenge. "He seemed like a very nice guy," Smart said. "Sometimes he was a little bit undependable. But I never would have guessed in my wildest dreams about his background. . . . I never would have ever hired him if I had known that. Whether that's my naivete or whatever, I just never ever would have exposed my family to that." Investigators impounded and searched the Jeep and two other vehicles owned by Ricci: a 1992 tan Ford Taurus and a 1995 white four-door Oldsmobile Cutlass. The Jeep remains in police custody. On Tuesday, police released photos of the vehicles and asked for the public's help in pinning down Ricci's whereabouts from May 31 to June 8. The Smart family also asked people to keep their ears and eyes open to help find Elizabeth. "We don't know where she is and it's going to be that one person noticing something unusual that is going to help her -- help her get back to us," her father said. And he had this tearful plea for Ricci: "Richard, please let her go if you've got her. I don't know if he does or not, but I would just ask and pray that he would." Ricci, who was first imprisoned at the age of 19 for a burglary conviction, was most recently paroled in September 2000, after failing four previous paroles. Deciding to release him again, Utah Board of Pardons records show, was a close call. As parole board chairman Michael Sibbett told Ricci during a January 1999 hearing: "This board is wondering if we should ever give you another parole. "We're in the risk business, and we give people chances," Sibbett added. "But there comes a time when you wonder how many chances you want to throw out." Sibbett said Ricci had "spit in the eye of the community" when he stole more than $2,500 worth of donated items from a Richfield food bank in 1995. Ricci also refused to cooperate with police who investigated. "It's one more indication of your lifelong antisocial criminal background," Sibbett said. Ricci responded that his latest return to prison had been "a reality check . . . I know you could keep me for the rest of my life. I don't want to die here." Ricci blamed his problems on drugs, acknowledging he has "an addictive personality." Within months Ricci used drugs again while part of a prison fire-fighting crew. "I fell off my sobriety," Ricci told the board during a November 1999 hearing. "If you play, you pay. I'm here to pay." The board added 2 more months to his sentence. |