Suspect in stabbing death has history of assault arrests

A man booked on a murder charge told police he was “mad at the world” when he allegedly stole a knife and stabbed a man in the neck near the Boulevard Mall.

Janelle Hammell, 23, faces a murder charge in connection with the deadly stabbing of another man Wednesday morning near East Katie Avenue and South Maryland Parkway, according to Las Vegas police records.

The man who was stabbed was not identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as of Thursday.

Detectives spotted Hammell on video surveillance stealing a knife from a nearby Target before walking up to another man and stabbing him twice, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department.

A witness saw the stabbing and called police, who arrived within two minutes and followed Hammell to a nearby youth home.

Hammell was arrested when he walked out of the facility, though he had changed clothes.

“You have to have the ‘kill or be killed mentality,’” Hammell told police.

Hammell previously was arrested in a battery case and in three separate assault cases from 2019 through January 2022, according to Las Vegas Justice Court records. The battery and one of the assault cases was dismissed by prosecutors.

In 2019, Hammell pleaded guilty to one count of assault. He pleaded guilty to assault again in March 2022. In each case, records show that the judge suspended his jail sentence and ordered him to stay out of trouble.

He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center in the murder case and is expected to appear in court Tuesday morning.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.