Man charged after confessing to 3 unsolved murders in North Las Vegas

On Thursday, prosecutors formally charged Willis Davis, 43, in connection with three unsolved North Las Vegas homicides from 1996, court records show. The shootings were tied to gang violence, and Davis told police he was a member of the GPK gang at the time of the killings, according to his arrest report.

On Jan. 12, Metropolitan Police Department officers during a traffic stop arrested Davis, who was accused of unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon. After his arrest, Davis told police he “wanted to confess to murders that occurred years ago in North Las Vegas,” the report said.

It was unclear in the report why Willis confessed. He was 18 years old when the first shooting happened, and 19 when the other two victims were killed.

“I provided Davis no details about the case and all details provided by him were only confirmed by reading the case file and reports after speaking with Davis,” a North Las Vegas Police Department officer wrote in the report.

Based on his confessions, police linked Davis to a deadly shooting on May 18, 1996, when 18-year-old John Muldrow Jr. was found suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest on a sidewalk near a North Las Vegas bus stop. Muldrow died from the gunshot wound at University Medical Center, the Clark County coroner’s office said.

Davis was also was connected to a case in which the bodies of two teenage boys — 15-year-old Xavier Crockett and 14-year-old Jason Moore — were found on Nov. 8, 1996, in a desert area on the 3000 block of Clayton Street, south of Cheyenne Avenue in North Las Vegas.

Crockett died of a gunshot wound to his head and neck, while Moore died of a gunshot wound to the head, the coroner’s office said.

Davis told police the first killing happened “sometime around 1995” when he set out to “do a drive by shooting” near a neighborhood in the area of Commerce Street and Carey Avenue, the report said.

“He chose this area because he was a GPK gang member and he was looking for members of the NTG gang to shoot,” the report said.

While his friend was driving, Davis saw a “juvenile” at a bus stop near the intersection of Commerce and Carey, and he “decided to shoot the victim,” the report said.

“He told me he knew he killed the person,” an officer wrote.

Davis also said that in 1996, two of his friends “asked him to ‘do a lick’ with them.” At least one of his friends was a “Rolling 60 Crip gang member,” and Davis said “his GPK friends regularly gave him a hard time for being friends with a rival gang member,” according to the report.

The names of Davis’ friends were redacted in the report.

The three walked through “Crip City” area to Clayton Street, where Davis asked if he could hold a gun one of his friends had, the report said.

“He shot both (redacted) and (redacted) in the head,” the report said. “He shot (redacted) one more time, then chased down (redacted) who had ran. He then shot him a second time.”

Both handguns Davis confessed to using during the shootings matched casings found at the scenes, the report said.

Davis was charged with three counts of murder with a deadly weapon and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, court records show. He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Tuesday without bail.

The 43-year-old has an arrest history in Clark County dating back to about 1998, when he pleaded guilty to a felony count of attempting to receive or transfer a stolen vehicle.

In October 2014, he was found guilty of felony counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle, court records show. He has an open case in Las Vegas Justice Court for a grand larceny of a firearm felony count he was charged with on Dec. 30.

A hearing in the murder case is scheduled for Feb. 25 in North Las Vegas Justice Court.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-2040. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.