Las Vegas man indicted, accused of eating murder victim’s eye
A grand jury has indicted a man accused of beating a man to death and eating part of his face in April.
Prosecutors announced Friday that a grand jury returned an indictment against 29-year-old Colin Czech on charges of murder, mayhem and attempted murder. He initially only faced a murder charges, court records show.
Czech’s public defender, David Westbrook, said Friday that he was not aware of the indictment, and he declined to comment on the case.
District Judge Jerry Wiese ordered Czech to continue to be held in custody without bail on Friday.
According to the indictment, the mayhem charge stems from prosecutors’ accusation that Czech disfigured his victim, identified as Kenneth Brown, by “removing an eyeball and/or ear by biting/chewing them off and/or by means unknown,” court records show. He is also accused of attempted murder by attacking and hitting a second man.
Czech was arrested April 28 after a gas station employee near Charleston Boulevard and Las Vegas Boulevard South reported seeing a man “eating the face” of another man lying on the ground near a bus stop.
Deputy District Attorney Julia Barker told the judge Friday that Czech was seen attacking another person in the area the morning of April 28, but bystanders pulled him off of the other person. She said that Czech later approached Brown as he was standing at a bus stop, and he hit Brown in the back of the head.
Barker said Brown’s cause of death was blunt force trauma.
“When the defendant was taken to the hospital he admitted that voices had told him to kill this person and then to eat this person,” Barker said.
An employee at another nearby convenience store had called 911 about 45 minutes prior to the fatal attack, to report that Czech was acting hostile and had attacked a customer.
Czech identified himself as homeless and told detectives that he had been in a fight with a “shape-shifter,” according to his arrest report. He also said that he was “tweaking” and hearing voices and that he had eaten the victim’s eyes and ears.
In May, Czech was deemed competent to stand trial following a mental health evaluation.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.
