Las Vegas police report says man strangled, burned girlfriend after insult

Raymond Lewis (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

Raymond Quinsell Lewis IV told police he strangled his 20-year-old girlfriend and burned her body after she called him lazy, according to his arrest report.

Lewis, 21, was arrested Thursday on one count of open murder. The same day, Geranique Bentley was identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as the woman whose body was found burned at 737 Rock Springs Drive.

According to the arrest report, Lewis reached out to the Metropolitan Police Department last week after a sketch of the victim was released to news media. He told police the woman in the sketch was his missing girlfriend, and he provided several photographs of Bentley to detectives for comparison.

In his initial interview with police, Lewis said that the night before Bentley was found burned, the couple entered an abandoned unit in the apartment complex to sleep. Lewis told police that when he woke up the next morning, his girlfriend “was nowhere to be found.”

Surveillance video from local businesses and the apartment complex showed that Lewis had lied about the details leading up to Bentley’s death, according to the arrest report.

Detectives confronted Lewis with evidence from surveillance during a second interview. Lewis then admitted that on the night of March 10, he and Bentley were arguing after Lewis asked her to borrow flour from a friend.

During the argument, Lewis told police, Bentley called him lazy. That’s when Lewis “climbed on top of Bentley and strangled her,” according to the arrest report.

Lewis removed the woman’s clothing, wrapped her body in a blanket and took it to the southeast corner of the complex. He told police he wanted to bury her “but realized he was pressed for time,” according to the report.

The suspect admitted squirting lighter fluid on the body for about 15 minutes to fuel the fire, according to the report. Lewis said that when he returned to the area to check on the body, the fire “quickly diminished.”

Lewis is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.