Suspect in killing of girlfriend, 19, in Henderson appears in court

Noah Ray Hadley, accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend last week after a house party in Henderson, appeared in court for the first time Tuesday morning.

Bail was temporarily set at $250,000 by Justice of the Peace David Gibson Sr., who scheduled a bail hearing for July 11. Hadley’s preliminary hearing also will be set that day after bail arguments.

The 18-year-old has been in custody at the Henderson Detention Center since his arrest around 3:30 a.m. Friday, hours after the shooting that killed his 19-year-old girlfriend, Amelia Claypool. She died of a single gunshot wound to her chest, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

Court records show Hadley was formally charged Monday with one felony count of open murder with a deadly weapon.

On Tuesday morning, Gibson’s courtroom was packed with about a dozen of Hadley’s family members.

Hadley, wearing a red jail jumpsuit, stood up when his case was called and for a moment lifted his chin to the ceiling, clenching his eyes shut as his family gazed at him from the gallery.

Hadley’s family and attorney declined to speak to the media after the roughly 3-minute arraignment hearing,.

A motive in the shooting has not been released, and Hadley’s three-page arrest report, which was released Monday, offers few clear details about the events preceding Claypool’s death.

At 11:11 p.m. on Thursday, Hadley called 911 to report Claypool had been shot by “some random guy” on the 600 block of Monument Point Street. But the suspect later provided officers with other accounts, including a possible drive-by shooting or one of Hadley’s friends “accidentally” shooting Claypool.

While officers were at the scene investigating, a witness provided police a video posted to Hadley’s Snapchat account seven minutes before the 911 call. In the 3-second video, Hadley is holding the black handgun that Henderson police suspect was used in Claypool’s killing, according to the report.

When police confronted him about the video, the report states, Hadley stopped talking and ended the interview.

During questioning, a friend of the couple acknowledged hiding the handgun under the front seat of his car for Hadley after the shooting.

He told police that he was standing outside his car with his back to the couple when he heard the gun go off. When he turned around, according to the report, Hadley “thrusted a handgun towards him.”

Hadley hadn’t asked him to hide the gun, but the man told police that Hadley’s actions were “consistent with that of a desperate request to hide or get rid of the gun.” Officers later recovered the suspected murder weapon.

Court and jail records indicate that as of Tuesday, the couple’s friend had not been arrested in connection with the case.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.