Man faces murder charge for 2021 slaying at Strip motel

A 32-year-old man was arrested Friday in the 2021 Strip shooting death of another man near the Luxor hotel.

Bryan Contreras was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and faces charges of murder and gun possession by a prohibited person, according to jail records.

It was not immediately known where or when Contreras was taken into custody. His name was listed on Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department records as being arrested on Friday.

A warrant for Contreras was issued in March in the slaying of Jesse Poncelet, whose body was found on Aug. 23, 2021 after police answered a call at a motel in the 3900 Block of Las Vegas Boulevard South, according to a report by the Review-Journal.

Poncelet, 32, was wounded once in the abdomen in the 1 a.m. gunfire and subsequently died at University Medical Center.

Las Vegas police arrested Contreras, who it was determined had fired a gun in the room and struck Poncelet, and booked him into county jail that day on one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.

According to Justice Court records, Judge Joseph Bonaventure ordered Contreras released on his own recognizance on Aug. 24, 2021, however when Contreras failed to appear in court for a hearing on the gun charge, Judge Eric Goodman issued a bench warrant for his arrest on March 15, 2022.

On March 24 of this year, a criminal complaint against Contreras in Poncelet’s death was filed and Judge Amy Chelini put out the bench warrant for him on March 29, according to court records.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.