Man jailed in 2 Las Vegas killings
A man suspected in a downtown Las Vegas killing was tied Friday to a second homicide this year, police said.
Jesus Gonzalez, 42, was arrested on Jan. 13 in connection with the killing of Ashleigh Figearo, 37, five days earlier. An arrest report released two weeks later said that Gonzalez knew Figearo always left the back door open of her house in the 200 block of North 17th Street.
It was unclear if Gonzalez and Figearo knew each other, but police tied him to the crime because he had borrowed a friend’s car and used a stolen gun, according to the arrest report.
Nine hours after a neighbor called police to report Figearo dead, Jose Soto was found dead in the 1800 block of Franklin Avenue, near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.
Police said Soto was chased down the street and shot to death.
On Friday, police said Gonzalez was identified as a suspect in Soto’s killing, but details on how he was tied to the crime were not immediately available.
Earlier in the day, Las Vegas police had incorrectly said Gonzalez was tied to a third homicide on Jan. 3.
Gonzalez has prior arrests in Las Vegas dating back to 2002, when he was charged in a robbery and a burglary five months apart, according to court records.
He was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle in 2019 and 2o21. In the first case, he plead guilty to resisting a police officer, and all charges were dropped in the second case.
He was sentenced to prison in 2011 for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon, in 2016 for mistreatment of a police animal and in February for discharging a weapon where a person might be endangered.
Four days after the February sentencing, he was charged as a fugitive from another state. He was ordered to return to the other state, which was not listed, within a month of completing his six-month sentence in Las Vegas.
He is scheduled to appear in court on two murder charges on March 2, according to jail records.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
