Police solve burglary of victim who was witness in Rudin murder case

A Metropolitan Police Department investigation into the Aug. 7 burglary at the home of Yehuda Sharon, 66, of Las Vegas, culminated in the arrests and prosecutions last week of Kyle Harris, 27, and Delilah Mejia-Lopez, 20, both of Las Vegas.

Authorities said both have pleaded guilty to felony charges, admitting to breaking into Sharon’s central Las Vegas home and stealing his belongings nearly a quarter-century after Sharon was a central witness in a murder case involving Margaret Rudin, who was suspected of killing her husband.

Sharon said he is “very pleased” with the outcome of the robbery case.

“When you invite a friend to your house, you say, ‘My house is your house,’ ” he said. “But when you have enemies or burglars like these two, they look at it as if your house is my house. They think they can come in and do whatever they want to do.”

Intriguing background

Sharon is a former intelligence officer with the Israeli military. He was also a witness in one of the most high-profile murder cases in the Las Vegas Valley. Sharon was close friends with Rudin, whose millionaire husband, Ron Rudin, vanished seemingly without a trace in 1994. Margaret Rudin, police said, shot her husband as he slept in the couple’s Las Vegas home, then burned his remains in an antique trunk at a cove near Lake Mohave.

Dubbed “The Black Widow” in media accounts, Margaret Rudin fled Las Vegas while under law enforcement investigation. She was on the run until her apprehension in Massachusetts in 1999. She was convicted of murder by a Clark County jury and served nearly 20 years in prison before her release in January. Margaret Rudin denies involvement in her husband’s killing.

Sharon, meanwhile, was in the middle of all of it. Police and prosecutors at the time of the murder case voiced suspicion that Sharon was Margaret Rudin’s secret lover and that, perhaps, he had something to do with the disposal of Ron Rudin’s body. In a September interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sharon said the two were just friends.

“I helped her with taxes,” Sharon said.

Sharon was ultimately granted immunity by Clark County prosecutors in the Rudin case, but when he testified before a grand jury, he gave authorities no information of value in the prosecution. Sharon was never arrested or charged in the case.

He now calls the experience “My life as ‘America’s Most Wanted’s’ Secret Lover.” Sharon makes his living these days selling a unique oil to churches.

August burglary

Sharon said that in late July he traveled to California, then returned to find a break-in at his town home near Maryland Parkway and Russell Road. His Nissan pickup, his credit card, a cellphone and various other belongings were stolen. Las Vegas police responded, documented the burglary and took some fingerprints, Sharon said.

His stolen credit card was used twice at an area gas station after the burglary. A third attempted transaction was blocked by his credit card company.

The stolen vehicle was eventually recovered by police at Fashion Show mall, Sharon said, and it was packed with belongings from people he doesn’t know. There were blankets, family photo albums, a FedEx receipt with a man’s name and address on it, a bullet and a man’s driver’s license in the front seat. None of it was Sharon’s, but when police released the truck to him, all of the belongings from other people were still in it.

Sharon soon became frustrated and questioned why it was taking so long to make an arrest. He also questioned why police didn’t immediately process several clues left behind at the scene, and he voiced suspicions that police were dragging their feet because of his history in the Rudin case. Police said they were thoroughly investigating.

Stolen truck at Target

Las Vegas police said last week that a stolen Toyota recovered in the parking lot of a Target store in the 9700 block of South Eastern Avenue on Nov. 3 helped crack the burglary case.

Police were called to the store because they saw a woman later identified as Mejia-Lopez breaking a window on the stolen vehicle. The vehicle had a fictitious license plate on it and two stolen license plates in the back seat. Police also found counterfeit money in the vehicle, according to arrest reports for Mejia-Lopez and Harris.

Police then obtained video surveillance showing Mejia-Lopez and Harris headed to a nearby apartment complex, where they were arrested. An officer handcuffed both, only to have both run from him with handcuffs still on. Harris was apprehended after a foot chase. Mejia-Lopez was found several minutes later by another officer in a Carl’s Jr. parking lot.

“The female had slipped my handcuffs during her escape, and was contacted without any cuffs on her,” an officer wrote in an arrest report.

Officer Larry Hadfield said Thursday that detectives interviewed the pair and obtained a confession that led to charges against Harris and Mejia-Lopez in the Sharon burglary. Harris pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted residential burglary, and Mejia-Lopez pleaded guilty Friday morning to a single count of felony residential burglary. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 13.

Harris has a long criminal history. He was on probation at the time Sharon’s house was burglarized. His probation in a prior case was revoked this week, and he was sentenced to 19 to 48 months in prison, according to District Court records.

“They should get the maximum,” Sharon said Friday morning, adding he has talked to his neighbors about the arrest and that “the entire community is thankful.”

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.