‘The uptick’s real’: Allegations in Las Vegas Valley slayings may fit into national trend

Over a three-day period in late December, police pointed to three children as suspects in three separate killings.

On Dec. 27, James Waldie, 56, was found dead in an apartment on the 3400 block of Mercury Street in North Las Vegas. His 12-year-old daughter is accused of stabbing him to death. Her attorney, Jon Chagoya, has raised questions about her competency and said in a phone interview that while such cases are “shocking and saddening,” children are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Just a day later, Jeremy Peterson, 45, died in the 6600 block of Tampa Court in what the Metropolitan Police Department said was a family quarrel. Police said Peterson’s 15-year-old son shot and killed him.

Then, on Dec. 29, 33-year-old Corey Dennis was fatally shot at a North Las Vegas apartment. Arnaz Jones, 16, was identified as the suspect and arrested by police, who said he was likely “armed and extremely dangerous” when they were still searching for him.

The allegations in these three slayings may fit into a national trend.

Homicides committed by children were 65 percent higher in 2022 than in 2016 across the country, with 521 such killings in 2022 compared to 315 in 2016, according to a report by the Council on Criminal Justice that drew on data in that time frame from agencies that participate in the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System.

National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform Director David Muhammad said juveniles make up a small portion of those “involved in gun violence” and homicides. Homicides committed by juveniles have dropped across the country in the last two years, he said.

Still, defense attorneys report seeing a recent spike in Las Vegas.

“I’ve had more juvenile homicides in the last two years than I’ve had in the last 12 years,” said Ryan Helmick, the attorney who represents Peterson’s son.

And prosecutors say they’ve seen an increase in juvenile gun crimes.

“The juvenile system, in theory, is designed to rehabilitate kids,” said Brigid Duffy, director of the Juvenile Division at the Clark County District Attorney’s Office. “Unfortunately, we have seen a huge rise in kids committing offenses with guns. It’s scary that we’re getting more and more cases like this.”

‘Getting a gun is not a problem’

Helmick declined to comment on the recent case except to say that his client “did not intend to kill his father.”

He’s not sure what’s driving the apparent increase, but sees one trend: the unlawful possession of guns.

“It seems like getting a gun is not a problem whatsoever,” he said.

Some of the killings are also over “really dumb” things, he said, like disputes about marijuana.

Louis Schneider, who represented a teen who admitted to manslaughter in the fatal beating of Rancho High School student Jonathan Lewis, said he has also seen an increase in homicides committed by children.

“Parents just don’t spend enough time with their kids and that’s the single biggest factor” in children committing crimes, he said.

Attorney Robert Draskovich, an attorney who defended another teen who admitted to manslaughter in the attack on Lewis, said cases of juvenile violence in Las Vegas seem to be on the rise, or at least are getting more attention.

He blames a mixture of poor impulse control and easy access to guns.

“Firearms being readily accessible are of great concern and you couple that with the impulse of youth or the lack of foresight of youth and you have tragic situations that occur,” he said.

‘Years in the making’

“The uptick’s real,” said Hunter Hurst, director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice. But he cautioned that policy makers should keep statistics in perspective and not respond to one-year trends.

The homicide increase since the pandemic parallels an increase in young people harming themselves and dealing with mental health problems, he said.

Brendan Lantz, one of the researchers who found the 65 percent increase, said his report drew on data for about 3,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S.

Other than homicides and firearm-involved crimes, juvenile violence is decreasing, he said. Lantz said that the data he examined ended in 2022 because that was the most recent data available when he started his research.

“Homicides committed by juveniles are still an outlier,” he said. “They’re not common.”

Muhammad sees commonalities among children who kill.

“They’re coming often from families that have generational poverty and generational trauma,” he said. They live in poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods and frequently have experienced something traumatic themselves, like witnessing a killing. They miss school or have discipline issues and initial juvenile delinquency cases.

“One of the things we have to understand better is when that 16-year-old commits a shooting, that was years in the making,” he added.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X. Review-Journal reporter Akiya Dillon contributed to this report.