Woman lured man into fake Uber on Strip to rob him, police say
A woman is facing felony charges after allegedly luring an intoxicated man from a Strip hotel to what he thought was an Uber but later found he was being taken to a motel where he was robbed, according to a Metro arrest report.
Rayjahnae Jones, 20, was arrested July 25 in connection with an armed robbery at the Diamond Inn, 4605 S. Las Vegas Blvd., where the man was pistol-whipped as he fought off two men who stole his cellphone, the the Metropolitan Police Department report states.
On June 21, just before 2 a.m., the man had finished playing poker at the Horseshoe Las Vegas on the Strip when he contacted his wife on Facetime and started to order an Uber ride home because he was “very intoxicated,” police reported.
He had not yet completed the ride request while at the hotel’s valet entrance when a woman, later identified as Jones, approached, told him she had ordered an Uber and wanted to share the ride with him, police said.
A red sedan quickly drove up into the ride-hailing pickup area and Jones ushered him into the sedan, telling him that it was the car she requested, according to police.
The man, who was not identified in the report, told police he recalled vague details about the male car driver but did remember the driver heading west on Flamingo Road onto Interstate 15.
He told police that he thought he was going home but realized that Jones never asked him where he lived and he figured he was being set up when she texted someone in the car, police said.
The car exited off Russell Road and continued east, turned onto Las Vegas Boulevard and stopped at the Diamond Inn directly outside a room, he told police.
After leaving the car he was immediately shoved into the room by two men, one of whom threatened him with a handgun, and during a scuffle he was pistol whipped, leaving a large laceration on the top of his head, police said.
He related to police he was able to fight off the pair but they absconded with his backpack containing his cellphone and ran upstairs to another room at the motel. The man then used his Apple watch to call 911.
Responding officers were not able to locate the two men at the motel but contacted the man’s wife, who told officers his request to Uber was never completed and when she called him on his Apple watch, he told her he was being robbed, police said.
Officers resumed the investigation, found surveillance photos of the man and Jones and one officer reported recognizing Jones from previous interactions at the Diamond Inn.
Metro included a picture of Jones in a photo lineup and the male victim said he was sure that she was the suspect, police said.
Jones agreed to meet a vice detective at a Starbucks on North Eastern Avenue and was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center.
She faces charges of robbery with a deadly weapon, battery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery and her preliminary hearing in Justice Court is scheduled for Jan. 29, court records show.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.
