Tattoos, prior arrests tie man to fatal stabbing in church parking lot

Brian McLemore was caught on several surveillance videos from nearby businesses riding his bicycle just before 4 a.m. Saturday to the parking lot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1101 N. Pecos Road, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department.

While riding through the parking lot, a witness said McLemore, 60, encountered Melvin Rodriguez, 20, of Las Vegas, who the witness said was smoking with a friend in the parking lot.

The witness said McLemore and Rodriguez got in a fight that resulted in McLemore stabbing the man. A small pool of blood was found in the parking lot, but detectives never referenced the discovery of a weapon in the arrest report.

Rodriguez was dropped off at North Vista Hospital where he died from a stab wound to the chest.

Detectives found video from several nearby businesses that showed the suspect in the stabbing had tattoos on his back, chest, arms and neck. The video was compared with McLemore’s prior mug shots, according to the arrest report.

McLemore said he lived across the street from the church and was out for a bicycle ride that morning, but he denied being involved in a fight.

Court records show McLemore first entered the court system more than a decade before Rodriguez was born, with two drug trafficking cases in 1990. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to battery constituting domestic violence. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to battery, trespassing and grand larceny.

In 2004 he pleaded guilty to battery constituting domestic violence, while three counts of child abuse were dropped.

Between 2013 and 2018 he was charged with concealed carry of a weapon without a permit.

He is being held without bail in the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.