Las Vegas police arrest man in connection with homicide cold case

A 41-year-old man suspected of beating another man 23 years ago outside a strip club, causing severe injuries that later resulted in the other man’s death, was taken into Las Vegas police custody this week.

About 10:10 p.m. on Sept. 28, 1996, Metropolitan Police Department received a 911 call about a man found beaten behind a business on the 2100 block of Western Avenue, near Sahara Avenue and Sammy Davis Jr. Drive. On Sunday, more than 23 years after the beating that is believed to have led to the man’s death, police booked a suspect into the Clark County Detention Center.

According to Toby Wilcox’s arrest report, in a June 2016 interview with detectives Wilcox said he was behind the Cheetah’s Lounge, a strip club at 2100 Western Ave., when he got in a fight with the man.

Wilcox, now 41, said he was with four other people that night and was admiring the tire rims on a white 1985 Chevrolet Camaro, because “he and his group were in the habit of stealing rims to either keep for themselves or sell for extra money.”

While looking at the rims, a man who just left the Cheetah’s Lounge got in a fight with Wilcox’s brother, he told police. Wilcox said he then picked up a table leg and hit the man with it.

“Wilcox only admitted to hitting (redacted) once in the head,” an officer wrote in the arrest warrant, later adding “Wilcox said he was not trying to kill (redacted) when he struck him with the table leg.”

Before the interview with police, detectives identified Wilcox as the suspect through fingerprints found on the table leg and palm prints found on the Chevrolet, the arrest warrant said. Police also examined blood found at the scene and a loose tooth found on the parking lot’s asphalt.

The man Wilcox allegedly attacked was taken to University Medical Center with severe injuries. He died from those injuries in an extended care facility on July 27, 1997, police said.

Police did not identify the victim in Wednesday’s statement. According to the warrant, the Clark County coroner’s office determined he died from blunt force trauma to the head and that his death was a homicide.

Though Wilcox was booked into the jail Sunday, prosecutors charged him with murder with a deadly weapon on June 21, 2016, and an arrest warrant was issued two days later, court records show. It was unclear on Wednesday how Wilcox was taken into Las Vegas police custody on Sunday.

Court records also show that on Nov. 13, a “confidential document” was filed regarding an “interstate agreement on detainers.”

Jail records identify Wilcox as “Toby D Wilcox,” and Las Vegas Justice Court records show that a Toby David Wilcox had been arrested in Clark County in March 2004 in connection with a fugitive felony charge. The records did not indicate what happened following a hearing in the case on March 12, 2004, the day after Wilcox was arrested.

Wilcox is due to appear in court in the murder case Thursday morning. He is being held without bail.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.