Man facing new charges after DNA links to Las Vegas carjacking
A 19-year-old accused of killing a retired police chief in a hit-and-run last year is facing new charges authorities said are tied to a 2023 carjacking.
Jesus Ayala faces charges of robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and grand larceny of a motor vehicle, court records show. He has been in custody since August 2023, when he was arrested in connection with the fatal crash that killed 66-year-old Andreas Probst, a retired police chief from Bell, California.
Investigators have previously labeled Ayala as a member of the “Night Crawlers criminal gang,” according to a prior arrest report.
Ayala was tied to the new robbery case through DNA found in a stolen vehicle, according to a Metropolitan Police Department report. In the early hours of July 17, 2023, a woman reported that two people, who appeared “really young,” approached her in her driveway in the northwest Las Vegas Valley and stole her car.
One of the suspects pointed a gun at her and demanded that she give him the keys, the report said.
Police found the car a day later and took DNA swabs from it. In April, police received a notification from a law enforcement database, matching Ayala’s DNA with the DNA found in the stolen vehicle, according to the report.
The woman who reported the stolen vehicle could not identify the suspects in a photo lineup that included Ayala, according to the report. Ayala declined to speak with investigators about the stolen car when police went to take a DNA swab from him at the Clark County Detention Center in May.
According to the report, police this month reviewed body camera footage from when Ayala spoke to officers at the hospital after the hit-and-run. In that video, Ayala was wearing clothing similar to the suspect holding the gun in the stolen vehicle case.
The video also showed Ayala with a large tattoo on his right cheek, similar to a tattoo briefly seen in surveillance footage on the gun-wielding suspect in the stolen car case, according to the arrest report.
Ayala has previously been pictured in court with a large black “NC” tattoo on his cheek.
He was previously tied to a separate stabbing from June 2023, which is being litigated with his murder case. Investigators identified him as a gang member in the arrest report for that stabbing.
Ayala has denied being a member of a gang, according to a prior arrest report.
Prosecutors have accused Ayala and his co-defendant, Jzamir Keys, of a string of crimes in August 2023 that ended with Ayala ramming into the back of Probst’s bicycle in the northwest Las Vegas Valley. Keys was accused of filming a video of Ayala laughing before hitting Probst.
Police said that Ayala and Keys also hit a separate bicyclist and crashed into the back of another car that same morning.
Both are facing charges including murder, battery, attempted murder, burglary, grand larceny, possession of a stolen vehicle and failure to stop at the scene of a crash involving death or injury, court records show.
Ayala has been found not competent to face charges in the murder case. A judge has ordered him to undergo mental health treatment at a state psychiatric hospital until his competency is restored.
His public defender, David Westbrook, has criticized the filing of the robbery case while Ayala was going through competency evaluations. He has previously said that cases against a defendant should not be filed if their competency has been challenged.
Court proceedings in the murder and robbery cases have both been paused while Ayala undergoes mental health treatment, records show.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.