Las Vegas man arrested, accused of shooting at girlfriend’s home

A 19-year-old man was arrested after police said he shot at his girlfriend’s home where she and their daughter were sleeping.

Joseph Soto-Leiva was charged with seven counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and six counts of discharging a gun into a structure or car after police said he fired about five shots at his girlfriend’s home where at least seven family members, including the daughter the couple shared, were inside, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.

Police were called June 13 at 3:36 a.m. after a woman reported her truck had a bullet hole in it following a drive-by shooting at her home, according to the arrest report. The woman later told police her family had been getting threatening photos of guns pointed at the camera from her sister’s boyfriend whom she identified as Soto-Leiva.

“The family did not want him around due to his active gang affiliation and violent outbursts,” the report said in reference to the woman’s comments.

The report noted that Soto-Leiva had prior hits in the Metro arrest system as a member of the 3rd Street gang.

Investigators searched Soto-Leiva’s phone location history using a search warrant to his phone company to confirm he was near the house at the time of the shooting.

When Soto-Leiva was arrested July 5, he also confessed to his involvement in an armed robbery later in the day June 13 in Los Angeles, where he said he fired “only one round” while the other people involved beat the victim, the report said.

“Soto-Leiva admitted the family did not want him around the child because he was acting like a gangster and messing up,” the police report said.

Soto-Leiva said he was riding in the passenger seat, but the arrest report did not detail who drove the car that he fired from. Adrian Dupuis, 22, has been arrested in connection with the case on charges of attempted murder.

He had one prior case in Las Vegas Justice Court in 2018 for discharging a gun into a structure or car and owning a gun as a minor, but the district attorney declined to prosecute the case.

Soto-Leiva is being held without bail and is expected to appear in court again Monday.

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