Arrest report details day family was left bound, bloody and burning in November arson
The family members left to die in a burning east valley home last November were zip-tied, duct-taped, stabbed repeatedly and doused in gasoline before being lit on fire that afternoon, according to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday.
Three men have since been linked to the heinous case, and all three are in custody: Malik Watson, 27, was booked at the Clark County Detention Center last week on 13 counts including murder, kidnapping and arson in connection with the incident, court records show. The two others — Darrin Wilder and Hakim Blanche-Jones — are both in federal custody, and all three men are due in court at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
One of the family members left in the burning 52 Sherrill Circle home — near Charleston and Lamb boulevards — died during the intentionally set blaze. Firefighters found the charred body of Mario Jimenez, 45, inside after the Nov. 16 fire, according to the report, and the county coroner ruled his death a homicide due to thermal and inhalational injuries.
Three others left inside the home were hospitalized, the report read. One of them, Angelica Jimenez, 27, later succumbed to her injuries and died Feb. 17 — the same night the 52 Sherrill Circle home mysteriously caught fire a second time, though firefighters did not rule the second fire an arson.
The small, single-story home had been demolished as of mid-August.
The report released Monday details a story of fear that lingered after $80,000 worth of drugs disappeared about two weeks before the fire.
The family targeted may have had involvement with a Mexican drug cartel, the report reads. A relative told police at least one member of the family had been conducting separate business involving drugs with Blanche-Jones, one of the men in custody.
According to the report, about $80,000 worth of an unnamed drug had been given to Blanche-Jones with the intent to sell. Two weeks before the fire, surveillance footage at a south valley post office showed a man matching Blanche-Jones’ description dropping off two packages bound for Philadelphia.
Unbeknownst to both parties, those packages were intercepted by a mail inspector and the drugs were seized. Blanche-Jones believed the drugs had been lost in the mail, and without the drugs, and the ability to sell the drugs, Blanche-Jones owed the Jimenez family $80,000 he didn’t have, the report explained.
After the drugs disappeared, the Jimenez family member reportedly involved with the drug operation — whose name was redacted in the report — told Blanche-Jones, “I’m not gonna do nothin’ to you all, but the people in Mexico is. Get this money or I’ll give them your address,” according to the report.
The day of the November 12:20 p.m. fire, a woman in the family who spoke with police said she had been washing dishes in the kitchen while another relative was eating at the kitchen table, a 10-month-old girl was in her playpen, another relative was on the couch and another was in the shower. Then someone knocked on the door.
Based on the woman’s description and the drug connections, police said the man at the door may have been Blanche-Jones. The family let him in, and the man casually sat down on the couch for about two minutes.
Then, he got up to let two more men in the front door, at least one of whom was armed. The incident was described as follows:
One of the men plucked the child from the playpen and put her in the family’s backyard. Then all three men zip-tied each relative’s wrists, duct-taped their noses and mouths and stabbed them multiple times, all while attempting to steal what they could.
Then, “to teach (the relative involved in the drug business) and his family a lesson for threatening to have the (cartel) hurt him,” one of the men reached out the front door, grabbed a red, plastic gas can and began dousing the house before walking back to the restrained family members, minus the young girl who was put outside, and dousing them in gas, the report reads.
“He then lit a piece of paper on fire and handed the lit paper to (another man), who threw the paper on the gas,” the report read.
As flames swallowed the home, the men ran out and drove away. At least two of them boarded a flight to Philadelphia the next day “upon hearing that there were survivors from the fire,” the report reads.
The day of the fire, crews treated and released the young girl on scene. Police said this week at least one of the relatives who had been in the home was still hospitalized for burns.
A neighbor was also treated and released for smoke inhalation; he had helped three people escape the flames before the home was engulfed, he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that day.
As firefighters arrived, the neighbor could hear at least one person still inside the burning home, possibly Mario Jimenez, but he wasn’t able to reach that person.
“It’s all I could do,” he said that day. “The house was blazing.”
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Find @rachelacrosby on Twitter.
RELATED
Man jailed in connection with fatal November arson in which victims were left to die
Victim in suspicious east Las Vegas house fire identified
Neighbors say east Las Vegas fire victims were left bound, bloody in burning home
