COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

Written By Mark Fierro

He almost got away with it.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, 2015, psychologist Dr. Brent Dennis made a call to 911 from his Henderson home with the news that his wife, Susan Winters, was not breathing.

Dennis told authorities that Susan, an attorney, had gone to bed shortly after 9 p.m. and that when he awoke, he found his wife unresponsive. Dennis said that his wife had been despondent and speculated that she may have ingested pain pills and antifreeze in order to commit suicide. After being rushed to the hospital, Susan Winters died at age 48 with a lethal amount of antifreeze and oxycodone in her system.

(Full disclosure: Fierro Communications, Inc., worked on the case providing litigation support services.)

After an initial cursory review of the matter that lasted approximately 88 minutes, according to Winters family attorney Tony Sgro, it appeared as if authorities had an easily closed case on their hands — a straightforward case of suicide, according to Henderson law enforcement officials.

If you ever do find yourself accused of a nefarious deed, Tony Sgro would have to be at the top of the list of attorneys you would want to contact to mount a defense. How ironic, then, that Sgro’s efforts ultimately aided the prosecution in this case.

“When we first met, the family was very suspicious of the investigation that resulted in a ruling that Susan had committed suicide,” Sgro told Vegas Legal Magazine. “Susan’s parents, Avis and Danny Winters, simply did not believe that their daughter would ever commit suicide. They wanted to see an investigation that was done more thoughtfully and more thoroughly.”

Sgro and his partner David Roger launched a private investigation into the death, revealing glaring inconsistencies with the story Brent Dennis was attempting to sell to the authorities. The probe drew a pinpoint focus on the search history and location data from Dennis’ cell phone.

A crucial maneuver in the investigation, according to Sgro, entailed allowing Dennis to claim funds from Susan Winters’ insurance and stock holdings and subsequently suing to obtain Dennis’ cell phone records and location data. These records ultimately played a key role in the case.

One of the major factors to examine in determining if someone took her own life or if it was a homicide, according to Sgro, is whether the person was making plans for the future.

“And Susan was making all kinds of plans for the next stage of her life,” Sgro said. “Some of the plans were things her husband did not even know about. For instance, one of the last text messages she ever sent was to a close friend of hers in which she essentially said, hey, I’m about ready to go on that double date we were talking about now. I think Brent and I are finally over.

“She was ready to leave him.”

Susan Winters was also planning to take the couple’s two daughters on trips to tour college campuses as well as making arrangements to open a family office in Oklahoma, where her parents are successful owners of multiple fast food franchises.

The questions were adding up in the minds of Susan’s parents. If she was so despondent, why would she be making all these plans? Why was she planning to set up a new life?

If it wasn’t a suicide, all indications pointed to Brent Dennis.

“The night when she was incapacitated, the night before she would die, Brent Dennis was on the phone with her bank, transferring approximately $180,000 from her private account to his own account,” Sgro said. “The next thing he did was, on the first hour of the next business day, he called her life insurance carrier and said he wanted to claim the life insurance proceeds. After that, he began the negotiation process with the Winters family so he could obtain Susan’s interest in the stock that she possessed in their company. All told, within a very short period of time, he amassed approximately $2 million as a result of her death.”

Sgro’s investigation also focused on Dennis’ cell phone records, including call and text history, internet searches and location data.

“We realized that although Brent Dennis told the police he was at home with Susan all night, his cell phone records made it clear that he was lying to police,” Sgro said. “His phone records showed that he was making telephone calls through that entire night and early morning. Not only was he on the phone literally all night long, but he was traveling. He was leaving his home. We were able to trace his travel from his home to the Orleans casino, which clearly meant he lied to the police on at least two fronts. Not only was he not home sleeping with his wife, but he was on the phone all night and as we learned, he had gone to meet his drug dealer at the Orleans.”

The cell phone records along with an emerging timeline of the night in question made it increasingly clear that Dennis was involved in his wife’s death as opposed to it being a suicide, according to Sgro.

“Susan was in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 at night. He called her bank about 10:00 or 10:30 to verify her account balances so he could begin making withdrawals,” Sgro said. “Around 2 in the morning, a bunch of telephone calls begin to his drug dealer. Not only is he speaking with his drug dealer, but you can see his travel path over to the Orleans to meet with his drug dealer.”

While communicating and meeting with his drug dealer, Dennis also conducted a damning internet search, according to Sgro.

“The search was something to the effect of: How long does it take somebody to die once they ingest antifreeze?” Sgro said. “You have to realize that at the time this search is done, approximately 5:30 a.m., Susan Winters is absolutely not ambulatory. She is literally dying. Someone else did the search, not her. So he’s online doing this research and he doesn’t call paramedics until about 45 minutes later.”

Sgro noted that doctors at the hospital commented on Dennis’ unusual behavior.

“The doctors said it was very strange that Brent Dennis had approached them, as opposed to the doctors approaching him, to talk about orders related to a DNR, or do not resuscitate, order,” Sgro said. “So that timeline is very incriminating. You have a completely different version of events compared to what he told police.”

Sgro credits KLAS-TV Channel 8 investigative reporter George Knapp for helping to drive awareness of the case.

“It was an uphill struggle for the Winters family to get this case reopened,” Sgro said. “Law enforcement was not receptive at all. Even though the original investigation was only 88 minutes, which is woefully inadequate, it is very difficult to get law enforcement to reassess, reevaluate or reconsider their original opinion. It took a year and a half to two years to get the police to finally recognize that there was something there. Having said that, to their credit they did ultimately conclude that he needed to be arrested for murder.

“Early in the process, the Winters family was able to get the attention of George Knapp at Channel 8. He met with them, he heard them out, and under his own volition he started making his own inquiries. In George Knapp, the Winters family had someone who was willing to hear their story and broadcast it, saying here is what is going on, and someone should be paying attention to this.”

The investigation led Henderson police to reopen the case, and in February 2017 Dennis was arrested on a murder charge.

Ultimately, Dennis pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in January 2022 through an Alford plea, meaning he admitted only that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him if the case went to trial.

In May 2022, Dennis, age 59, was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison by District Judge Michelle Leavitt.

Sgro described the Winters family’s reaction to Dennis’ sentencing as bittersweet.

“You’re not happy to be reminded of the death of your loved one, but coupled with that is a sense of relief that the case is finally concluding,” Sgro said. “It was an interesting dynamic that the defense tried to portray. They tried to portray Brent Dennis as the victim of the overreach of Susan’s parents. Clearly there’s never going to be any remorse, because in the defendant’s opinion there was nothing to be remorseful about.

But the Winters family was very close and very adamant. They never believed their daughter would commit suicide, and they were right.”

Mark Fierro began his career as a reporter/ anchor at KLAS-TV, the CBS television station in Las Vegas. He worked at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He served as communications consultant on IPO road shows on Wall Street. He provided litigation support for the Michael Jackson death trial. He is president of Fierro Communications, Inc., which conducts mock juries and focus groups in addition to public relations and marketing. Fierro is the author of several books including “Road Rage: The Senseless Murder of Tammy Meyers.” He has made numerous appearances on national TV news programs.

Jeff Haney serves as Executive Vice President of Operations for Fierro Communications, where he works closely with Mark Fierro in developing and directing all media, marketing, research, consulting and public relations strategies for Fierro Communications’ clients including those in business, government, the legal field and cutting-edge high technology.