Suspect in attack on Paris Las Vegas worker arrested 5 times since July

A transient accused of attacking a restaurant worker with a butcher knife on the Las Vegas Strip is a six-time felon from California who has been arrested five times in Las Vegas since July, police and court records show.

Kirklin Oates, 55, is charged with five felonies, including attempted murder, in the Dec. 14 stabbing of a kitchen employee at a Paris Las Vegas restaurant. Las Vegas police said Oates slipped through an employee entry at the Paris, stole a butcher knife from a kitchen, then followed the worker into a restroom and attempted to slash his throat.

The victim suffered a severe cut to his head in what police described as a “vicious attack” that will leave a permanent, disfiguring scar.

Las Vegas police and Justice Court records now show Oates has six prior separate felony convictions in California, with San Diego County Superior Court online records indicating Oates has had 10 criminal cases filed against him there there since 1986. The exact charges Oates was convicted of in California are blacked out in police arrest reports and not accessible online, but police said some of the convictions were for violent offenses. Police said he failed to register with police as a convicted felon upon moving to Las Vegas 23 months ago.

First encounter with Las Vegas police

The Metropolitan Police Department said officers arrested Oates for the first time on July 23 at 12:23 a.m. at Sierra Vista Drive and Cambridge Street, where he “was making threats to a security guard working at the apartment complex while wielding a large metal pole,” according to an arrest report.

The security guard in the case refused to press charges, but Oates was still arrested on a misdemeanor charge of felon failure to register. The case was ultimately denied for prosecution in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Oates was arrested again on Sierra Vista Drive on Sept. 10. A convenience store clerk at a 7-Eleven said Oates damaged his car and was acting aggressively in the store parking lot, prompting Las Vegas police to arrest him on a gross misdemeanor of damaging or tampering with a vehicle. He was ultimately released on his own recognizance in Justice Court and ordered to stay out of trouble. The case remains pending against him.

On Oct. 21, police said Oates attacked a man in a wheelchair with a copper pipe in the 3300 block of South Maryland Parkway.

“(The victim) stated that he had never seen Kirklin before and that he approached him in a threatening manner, holding a metal pipe,” police wrote in an arrest report.

Police said Oates swung the metal pipe at the man, striking him in the hand. The victim fled and called police, prompting Kirklin’s arrest on a felony charge of battery with use of a deadly weapon. Oates was held in custody on $2,000 bail. However, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said when the case proceeded through the system, the case was dismissed because of problems getting the victim to testify.

“We could not find or get the victim to court,” Wolfson said, adding if the victim hadn’t disappeared, Oates would have been prosecuted.

Gas station confrontation

Oates was arrested again on another tampering with a vehicle charge on Dec. 5, just nine days before the stabbing at the Paris. A woman told police she encountered Oates when she drove her car into an Arco gas station in the 300 block of East Charleston Boulevard.

“(He) started kicking both passenger doors … then walked up to her driver door and pulled on the door handle (and) at the same time he started spitting on her window,” police said.

Oates was arrested at the scene, accused of causing about $3,000 damage to the vehicle. He was released in Las Vegas Justice Court a day later on his own recognizance. That charge is also still pending against him in Justice Court.

Following his arrest in the stabbing at the Paris, Oates is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.

A preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 4.

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