An 81-year-old Las Vegas man has been arrested for stabbing his adult son to death, telling the neighbor who called 911 the man “fell on a knife and was bleeding.”
The incident took place on December 22 and involved a convoluted set of circumstances as related by suspect Juan Garcia-Hernandez and his son’s “girlfriend,” KLAS reported
Police were ultimately called to the scene at about 1 p.m. Medics attempted life-saving measures, but Nelson Garcia-Leon was pronounced dead at the scene. Police found a 15-inch kitchen knife covered in blood in a cooler outside the apartment.
The girlfriend, who said she’d been dating the victim for about a month but knew the father and son much longer, told police she went to a store and then came back to the apartment to cook. Afterward she took and shower and got dressed, saying he didn’t hear anything odd during that time.
But when she came out of her room, she saw Garcia-Leon acting strangely and saw what appeared to be blood on his chest before he collapsed. She asked Garcia-Hernandez about a knife on the floor, and he told her Garcia-Leon had fallen on it and hurt himself.
The girlfriend said she told Garcia-Hernandez to go get help, and he left the apartment. She said he tried to call 911 multiple times but kept adding an additional number, then called a friend to contact 911. Meanwhile, Garcia-Hernandez returned to the apartment with a neighbor, who called 911.
The neighbor told police Garcia-Hernandez said “his son fell on a knife and was bleeding” and that the older man “didn’t seem stressed at all,” according to court documents.
Garcia-Hernandez told police that his son had been drinking, which led to an argument. According to court documents, he said he told his son to stop drinking because of recent surgeries, after which doctors had advised him not to drink. He said that Garcia-Leon collapsed on the knife and that he called for help and that he and the girlfriend moved Garcia-Leon to a bedroom.
When asked if he stabbed his son, Garcia-Hernandez denied it.
Garcia-Hernandez is charged with murder and being held without bond, jail records show. He is due in court on January 9.
