Can DNA exonerate convicted killer in Gary Triano's murder?

Nearly three decades after a prominent real estate developer was killed in a car bombing in Tucson, Arizona, the attorney for one of the people convicted in the murder is seeking a new trial based on a recent DNA analysis.

"I believe two innocent people are in jail," attorney Stephanie Bond said in an interview with "20/20."

On Nov. 1, 1996, Gary Triano was killed when a bomb detonated in a country club parking lot. The blast was so powerful that it sent the windshield of Trianos Lincoln Town Car hundreds of feet away into the clubs swimming pool.

Friends and family who spoke to "20/20" remembered Triano as a gregarious and empathetic man who loved his family.

A "20/20" airing January 24 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC looks at the murder of Gary Triano and the investigation that led to the arrest of Trianos ex-wife and her associate.

"He was very kind and gracious and generous," Gary's niece, Melissa Triano, told "20/20" in a new interview. "He was a true gentleman and a true, kind person."

Years passed before investigators in the Pima County Sheriffs Office, the ATF and other law enforcement agencies made any arrests. Pam Phillips, Trianos ex-wife, and her business associate, Ron Young, would eventually be charged and convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

During separate trials for Young and Phillips in 2010 and 2014, respectively, prosecutors laid out their theory of the murder plot: Young constructed and detonated a pipe bomb in exchange for money that Phillips received from Trianos life insurance policy.

In 2023, crime scene evidence sent for lab testing by Phillips defense team determined that DNA belonging to someone other than Ron Young was discovered on parts of the incendiary device.

Bond, Phillips current attorney, believes that if it can be proven that Ron Young was not responsible for building and setting off the explosive that killed Triano, prosecutors cannot connect Phillips to the murder.

Phillips filed a petition for post-conviction relief challenging her criminal conviction on August 15, 2024. The Pima County Attorneys Office, on behalf of the State of Arizona, filed a response on January 14, 2025.

"She has brought forth nothing to rebut the evidence of her guilt let alone evidence that likely would have changed the outcome at trial," the response to petition for post-conviction relief states.

The states response goes on to say that the new DNA testing is not evidence at all, claiming it would have been possible for Young to construct the bomb without his DNA being found on it.

Appeals for Phillips and Young have previously been denied.

Gary Triano was a shrewd businessman, building a fortune in the 1980s and early 1990s through real estate and casino gaming deals. He was a regular at the La Paloma Country Club, where he played a round of golf just before the car bombing.

"He loved life," Ron Lehman, Triano's friend, told "20/20." "He lived life larger than most people."

As investigators started looking into who would want to hurt Triano, they uncovered that the financial success he was known for obscured some tensions Triano was dealing with at the time of his death. Following his contentious divorce from Pam Phillips, Triano filed for bankruptcy in 1994, claiming to owe debts up to $27 million.

Phillips' trial attorneys argued that one of the men who Triano was allegedly indebted to, Neil McNeice, had the motive and means to kill him. Dr. Lawrence D'Antonio, who treated McNeice before his death in 2002, described McNeice to "20/20" as a man who kept an alleged "to kill" list with Triano on it.

Bond hopes to match DNA from the bomb parts to one of McNeice's known associates through genetic genealogy, a technology that has improved in recent years to connect people's DNA through their close relatives.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence tying McNeice to the Triano murder. Following Phillips' trial, McNeice's family released a statement denying his involvement in the case, calling the defense's theory "erroneous accusations."

Aside from the evidence found at the crime scene, a plethora of communications in the form of hand-written letters, emails and recorded phone calls between Young and Phillips were presented during both trials. The bulk of these communications were discovered in Ron Youngs possession when he was arrested in 2005.

"It was astounding what was there," retired Pima County Detective James Gamber said. "He had his own amortization table of the money Pam was paying him with the interest that was due."

Defense attorneys for Phillips and Young maintain the two had entered into a separate business arrangement and these payments had nothing to do with Trianos death.

A separate investigation into Ron Young for fraud, stemming from statements Phillips herself had made to police, provided even more evidence in the car bombing case. After her divorce from Triano, Phillips moved to Aspen, Colorado, and started a website business. It was in Aspen where she met Ron Young, who Phillips brought on to help manage the website before accusing Young of stealing from her business accounts.

Although the charges for fraud were eventually dropped, a detective with the Aspen Police Department pursued a lead to a van Young had rented in Aspen, which was found abandoned in Yorba Linda, California, weeks before Triano was killed.

Inside the van, police found divorce paperwork for Gary Triano and Pam Phillips and a list of people close to Triano. They also found receipts indicating Young had been in Tucson shortly before Trianos death.

"It was packed floor to ceiling with documents, and clothes, and junk, and a taser, a sawed-off shotgun, and just all kinds of stuff," former Aspen Police Department detective James Crowley told "20/20."

When the fraud and homicide investigations were eventually connected by law enforcement, the van's contents became of interest to authorities in Arizona. Evidence gathered by multiple agencies, collected across numerous states over the course of a decade, eventually secured guilty verdicts for both Phillips and Young.

Melissa Triano still remembers Phillips proclaiming her innocence to the courtroom after being convicted.

"She didn't look at us and say she's sorry for the loss of our uncle, of our dad, of any of that, of your friend, nothing. It was all about her," Melissa Triano told "20/20." "So, I think that was very telling."