Fingerprints on cups help Las Vegas police nab slaying suspect

Fingerprints left on cups at two robbery scenes, blood evidence and surveillance video helped police arrest a suspect in a deadly late October shooting.

Authorities arrested 26-year-old Johnny Stamps on Sunday in connection with the robberies and the homicide, his arrest report shows.

The cups were found in September, when Henderson police were investigating a series of handgun robberies. A man pretending to be an interested buyer met with people trying to sell guns online. Stamps’ arrest report said he then threw bleach in sellers’ faces and fled with the guns but left the cups.

On Oct. 24, Stamps met with two men in a parking lot at 1135 E. Desert Inn Road to sell stolen guns, the report said.

Stamps got into the back seat of the men’s vehicle at 9:55 p.m. It took only one minute for the sale to go sideways.

Surveillance video from nearby businesses shows shots were fired inside the truck. One of the men, Mario Trejo, got out of the driver’s side of the truck and fired several shots into the back seat, the report states.

The video shows Stamps kicking out the passenger side rear window and climbing out of the truck, the report states. He then fled the scene, firing shots at Trejo as he ran.

Officers arriving at the scene found Trejo on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. The second man, later identified as Christopher Carter, was dead in the truck’s passenger seat. Trejo was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in critical condition.

Blood found in the back seat of the pickup truck once again led police back to Stamps, but didn’t provide enough probable cause to link him with the shooting.

Henderson police and the FBI arrested Stamps on Sunday in connection with the September gun robberies and a warrant out of Arizona.

Police searched Stamps’ apartment after his arrest, according to the report, and located a handgun with the same serial number as a gun reported stolen during one of the Henderson robberies. The gun was also the same caliber as several shell casings found at the homicide scene.

Police also discovered two healing gunshot graze wounds on Stamps’ upper chest as he was being booked into the Clark County Detention Center.

Stamps faces one count each of open murder and attempted murder, along with several fugitive charges out of Arizona. He was due in court Wednesday morning for a felony arraignment.

Contact Max Michor at mmichor@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaxMichor on Twitter.