Woman convicted of threatening lives of Caesars lawyers
A federal jury has convicted a Las Vegas woman of mailing threatening letters to her mother’s former supervisor at Planet Hollywood Resort and to attorneys representing the resort’s parent company.
Latonia Smith, 27, was found guilty on Thursday of five counts of mailing threatening communications. A sentencing date had not been set as of Monday.
The threatening letters were sent to her mother’s former supervisor and to attorneys defending a lawsuit against Caesars Entertainment Corp., Planet Hollywood’s parent company, between September 2018 and October 2019.
Smith said in the letters that her mother, Annecer Peruzar, was fired because of her supervisor’s racial bias, according to court records. The supervisor, Samantha Radak, said she fired Peruzar in 2017 “for allegedly taking change from a customer while cleaning the customer’s room,” the records show.
Writing under the pseudonym “Medina Sinclair,” Smith said in the first message that her mother “would never jeopardize her job over a tip that you can’t even buy a Coke with,” according to court records. In another message, sent from a profile with the name “Aus Riley,” she said her mother lost her job because she was accused of stealing $1.
In three of the letters, Smith wrote: “Your throat will be slit you will be recorded as the blood spills from your neck and just as you gasp to take your final undeserving breath three bullets will be placed right through your skull.” In another letter, she threatened that the recipients had been “added to the hit list” and it would be the “end of lives.”
None of the other letters referenced Smith’s mother, but they were all filled with similar threats. They addressed racism, saying that those responsible for her mom’s firing needed to re-evaluate their actions and fix their ways, or, according to one letter from August 2018, “you will all die.”
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.
