Woman arrested, accused of threatening to light 61-year-old on fire

A woman was charged with attempted murder in late February after she poured lighter fluid on a 61-year-old and threatened to kill her at an east Las Vegas Valley park, according to an arrest report.

Just before 9 p.m. on Feb. 21, Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to Desert Inn Park, 3070 Vista Del Monte Drive, after a report of a woman threatening to fight people and start a fire. When officers arrived at the park, a man said a woman with an “orange cart” had attempted to “light his friend (redacted) on fire after spraying her with lighter fluid,” the report said.

Officers then found 29-year-old Jakeilla Hamilton near the park with an orange shopping cart. Hamilton was arguing with another woman, but denied that she threw lighter fluid on the woman at the park, according to her arrest report.

Police determined Hamilton had a warrant out of Las Vegas Justice court for battery on a protected person, and as Hamilton was being arrested she asked officers to “grab her property from her cart to take to jail,” the report said.

As officers were searching the cart, they found two empty 1-quart bottles of “Charcoal lighter/starter fluid labeled as dangerous, combustible and flammable liquid.” Police also found two lighters in the cart and a “geometry math book which later turned out to be the victims,” the report said.

Police then went back to the park and found a 61-year-old woman who said Hamilton had poured the lighter fluid on her. The woman said Hamilton had taken her math book from her and “refused to give it back,” the report said.

The woman said Hamilton then approached her with a bottle of lighter fluid and “emptied the entire bottle (on) her, drenching her from head to toe,” the report said.

The officer who wrote the report also noted the smell of lighter fluid on the woman, and that her hair was wet and her sweatshirt was “saturated.”

The woman “said she was in fear for her life” because Hamilton was “standing approximately 4 ft away with lighters saying she was going to kill her while striking the lighter to get it to ignite,” the report said.

Another witness also said Hamilton was “saying she was going to kill and keep killing everyone,” the report said.

Hamilton remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Friday without bail, court records show.

She has an arrest history in Clark County dating back to 2014 related to charges including burglary, battery, drug possession and trespassing, according to Las Vegas Justice Court Records.

In April 2016, she pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanor charges of attempted grand larceny and battery on a protected person, and in March 2018 she pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm, District Court records show.

A preliminary hearing in the attempted murder case is scheduled for March 10.

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