Las Vegas woman accused of battery with railroad spike

Armed with a railroad spike, a woman allegedly beat another woman on the head just days after the two met at a Las Vegas shelter for victims of domestic violence.

The victim had recently fled a domestic violence situation in her home in Washington state with her 8-year-old daughter and was staying at The Shade Tree, a domestic violence shelter in Las Vegas, according to police. With nowhere else to go, she accepted an invitation last month from Jenifer Padilla for the two to stay with her in her apartment on the 3800 block of Wynn Road, near West Twain Avenue and Arville Street.

Later, the woman would tell police that she “trusted Padilla since she was also a victim of domestic violence,” according to Padilla’s arrest report.

The alleged attack happened early May 17, not long after the three had arrived at Padilla’s home. Apparently “unnerved” after the woman rejected her sexual advances, Padilla only stopped striking the woman after her daughter walked in on the attack and ran out crying and screaming for help, the report stated.

By that time, the victim had been struck more than 20 times and lost consciousness, police said. She suffered multiple deep lacerations and a broken finger, and will require “further medical follow up,” according to the report.

Outside, the girl called 911, and both the mother and daughter identified Padilla as the suspect when Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived, the report shows.

Padilla, 30, has been charged with battery with the use of a deadly weapon, battery with the intent to kill, attempted murder and open or gross lewdness. Denied bail, she remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center, jail and court records show.

“A reasonable person would believe that if a person struck another person over 20+ times with a deadly weapon, only stopping when a juvenile witness fled and yelling for help, their intent would be to kill the other,” detectives wrote in Padilla’s report.

After she was taken into custody, Padilla — a convicted felon in California — told police that “she was a good person and would never do something like that.”

She also claimed that she was the “real victim,” saying that she was the one who made the 911 call. But a check of police dispatch logs showed that the 8-year-old girl was the only 911 caller, according to the report.

Padilla’s convictions include assault or force with a deadly weapon in 2013 in Compton and assault or force resulting in gross bodily injury in 2016 in Norwalk. She was sentenced to two years in a California prison for the 2016 conviction, records show.

She was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Clark County District Court.

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