‘I killed her’: Suspect in girlfriend’s fatal stabbing tells police he did it
December 27, 2023 - 6:30 am
Updated December 28, 2023 - 7:18 pm
A 39-year-old northwest Las Vegas man arrested last week in connection with the bludgeoning and stabbing death of his girlfriend said, “I did it. I killed her” while walking out of his house with blood on his hands and arms, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.
After the arrest of Brandon Tenorio on suspicion of the killing of Kourtney Glover, 36, on Dec. 20, “the crime scene consisted of blood throughout the home” on Mountain Valley Drive, near West Gowan and North Fort Apache roads, according to the arrest report.
“A bloody hammer was located in the downstairs bathroom, three bloody kitchen knives were located in the kitchen,” police said in the report. “Kourtney was lying supine on the floor at the base of the stairs, which is also next to the kitchen.”
Neighbor hears ‘loud thud’
Police received a 911 call at 7:58 p.m. from a neighbor “stating that an individual had murdered his girlfriend with a hammer” at the Mountain Valley home, police stated in the report.
A woman living at the home who said she was Tenorio’s grandmother told officers that she was sleeping in her room upstairs in the two-story house when “she heard a loud thud,” police said.
When she got up to investigate what happened, she “saw Brandon standing over the top of Kourtney, who was on the ground,” she told officers.
“Brandon was hitting Kourtney’s head with a hammer,” police recounted the woman telling them.
She then went over and attempted to pull Tenorio away from Glover, but he pushed her way, after which she said she fled the house through the garage, police stated in the report.
“She said that Brandon then came outside and drug her back inside,” police stated. “While Brandon was dragging her back inside, he stated, ‘I’m not going to kill you.’”
Once inside, Tenorio turned his attention back to Glover, and her grandmother again ran out, this time to a neighbor’s home to call police, the report stated.
At 8:08 p.m., with police outside. Tenorio walked out of the house with his hands up and blood showing on his hands and arms, police reported.
The police arrest team then heard Tenorio utter, “I did it. I killed her, she is dead, she is inside” before officers placed him into a patrol car, the report said.
Officers entered the home and tried to perform CPR on Glover but could not revive her. She was pronounced dead by a University Medical Center doctor at 8:51 p.m., according to police.
Later, in an interview with detectives at Las Vegas police headquarters, Tenorio, after saying he understood his Miranda rights, said he thought that people “are after him to kill him,” that he hears “voices in his head all the time” and that he had heard a voice say “It’s time to kill or be killed,” the report stated.
He told police that he picked up Glover between 3 and 4 p.m., drove her home and then he got a message on his Signal phone app “saying he needed to kill his grandma,” but that the message showed up on “predictive” text and could not be seen, the report stated.
Tenorio said that at home, he saw a gas truck and started to believe Glover was setting him up to be killed, police stated.
He told Glover she needed to leave the house and then she shined a flashlight out of the house and he thought she was signaling the gas truck to come in and kill him, the report said.
He said he then grabbed the hammer, hit her on the back of the head, heard her yell in pain and saw her try to defend herself and cover her head when his grandmother came over and yelled that “he was killing her,” the report stated.
‘Just wanted to make it stop’
When his grandmother fled the house, he pulled her back inside, where he said he saw Glover standing at the top of the stairs and, still thinking she had set him up, decided to kill her, the report stated.
Then Glover fell down some of the stairs, he said, and he then took a kitchen steak knife from a drawer and stabbed her in the neck, stomach and back, according to the report.
“He said that she was in pain, and he just wanted to make it stop,” police stated. “Brandon said that after he stabbed her, he stopped to smoke a cigarette” before hearing police arrive and surrendering to them, police stated.
Tenorio, who is facing charges of murder and first-degree kidnapping, remains in the Clark County Detention Center.
In a brief court hearing Wednesday, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Amy Chelini ordered Tenorio held without bail. He is due back in court Thursday.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X. Reporter Peter S. Levitt contributed to this story.