Man linked to two homicides arrested in connection with animal abuse

A man who was once a person of interest in a still-unsolved 2016 double murder faces the revocation of his probation in a stalking case after he was arrested April 25 on suspicion of abusing a dog.

Shane Valentine, 31, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of willfully, maliciously torturing to maim or kill an animal and violating his probation on his third conviction of attempted stalking, based on court and jail records.

District Judge Ronald Israel is set to consider revoking Valentine’s probation at a hearing on Monday, and a preliminary hearing on the animal abuse charge is scheduled in Justice Court for May 15, court records show.

The district attorney’s office filed for the hearing to revoke Valentine’s probation on April 30 following his latest arrest, according to court records.

His three-year probation sentence came down last June after a judge suspended a sentence of 19 to 48 months in state prison based on his guilty plea to the third offense of attempted stalking, court documents show.

If his probation is revoked, he could be sent to prison to serve out the sentence that was suspended.

Valentine was linked to the Oct. 27, 2016, shooting deaths of Sydney Land, 21, and Nehemiah “Neo” Kauffman, 20, whose bodies were found by a friend inside a residence at the Union Apartments at 4450 S. Hualapai Way.

Prior to that, on Oct. 8, 2016, prosecutors claimed that Valentine crashed his car into Kauffman’s mother’s Centennial Hills home, threw rocks through a window and fired a shot into the house.

While investigating the homicides, Las Vegas police reported locating text messages between Valentine and Kauffman, including one from Valentine stating, “I’m coming over to your mother’s house” before the Oct. 8 attack.

Police said that Valentine had been “a person of interest” in the slayings, but he was never charged in them and they remain unsolved.

The case took a strange turn in 2020, when the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed a complaint against then-Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson alleging she improperly pressured and berated police into taking action against Valentine, whom she thought killed Land and Kauffman and was attempting to lure her daughter into sex trafficking.

The commission also claimed Tobiasson personally tried to investigate the homicide case herself and contacted an alleged organized crime figure.

The panel alleged that Tobiasson violated Nevada’s Code of Judicial Conduct by abusing her position as a judge to advance her personal interests.

Tobiasson, facing ethics charges, agreed to resign from the bench in 2021 and on Jan. 20, 2023, died by suicide.

If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Lifeline network at 988. Live chat is available at 988lifeline.org.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.