Las Vegas police arrest man in killing over computer sale
The mother of a man fatally shot in northwest Las Vegas during a transaction over a computer thanked police Thursday for making an arrest in the case.
“I’m glad they arrested somebody,” said Melissa Lickteig of Las Vegas.
The Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday arrested Nelson Ortiz, 43, in the April 9 shooting of Lickteig’s son, Brandon Coristine. Las Vegas police said Coristine, 32, was killed during a deal involving a computer at a home on the 8400 block of Shady Shores Circle, near the Desert Shores community at Rampart and Lake Mead boulevards.
Clark County Detention Center records indicate Ortiz was booked on a murder charge. Police have said Coristine’s killer was accompanied by two people. The three fled the shooting in a black sport SUV that was at a nearby convenience store. Two people were questioned, but police have not said whether any other arrests have been made.
Lickteig said the killing of her son has devastated her family. She said her son was a good person with “a big heart.”
“He has a family who loved him dearly, more than he probably knew,” Lickteig said.
She said her son was a veteran who struggled with mental illness.
Coristine was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the February 2017 killing of a Las Vegas woman. He pleaded guilty to an assault charge in 2013 in the rape of a woman who passed out drunk after a house party in 2009, Washington court records show.
However, Lickteig said, that should not define him. She described Coristine as a loving father and son “who would do anything for anybody.”
“He is a victim,” Lickteig said, adding he would “be placed in a national cemetery because he served our country proudly.”
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
This story has been updated to correct the date of Brandon Coristine’s shooting death.
