Wednesday, Oct. 15, 1997 | 10:06 a.m.
Charles Lee Redmond obtained a restraining order four months ago against a 21-year-old woman he said was stalking him.
It didn't help. She shot him to death Monday, then turned the gun on herself, police said.
Although Redmond filed a report with Metro Police on June 9 complaining that Nicole Thornton, a 21-year-old dancer who also worked for an escort service, had slashed his tires, broken his car windows and stalking Redmond and his family for months, she wasn't arrested.
According to Metro's records, the report filed by Redmond against Thornton was listed as a threat against a person and tampering with a vehicle.
Also in June, Thornton obtained a restraining order through the courts, said his sister, Jamie Pomerleau.
A detective with Metro's domestic violence unit said the unit typically handles stalking cases. Previously, such cases were handled by general assignment detectives. The Redmond case was not referred to the domestic violence unit.
"Technically, it should have come here, but another unit, general investigations, handled it," said a detective who asked that his name not be used.
The detective didn't know why the case wasn't referred to the domestic violence unit or why Thornton wasn't arrested, or even questioned.
That's no comfort to Redmond's family, which has lived in Las Vegas for 17 years.
Redmond had a fling with Thornton, but wasn't in a relationship with her, Pomerleau said. She said he possibly met Thornton while waiting for a fare at the Girls of Glitter Gulch nightclub downtown, where police said Thornton's work card showed she worked since 1996.
Redmond had received a threatening letter, the second one, about a week ago and his family believes he went to Thornton's apartment after he got off work about 12:30 a.m. Monday to tell her to leave him alone.
But homicide Sgt. Bill Keeton said, "Given the circumstances, it doesn't make sense that he went to (Thornton's) apartment. We'll never know why he went over there."
Pomerleau, however, said her brother simply wanted the woman to stop harassing him at work and at his home.
"He tried to go through the right channels and no one did anything," Pomerleau said. "Then he tried to handle it himself.
"He made the mistake getting involved with this girl, but he made up with his wife, and this woman wouldn't leave him alone."
Patricia Stocker, the woman who cradled Redmond during his last moments of life, said he kept telling her, "I'm shot, I'm shot."
She wants his family to know that he wasn't alone when he died.
"He talked to me," Stocker said. "He told me his name was Lee."
She made him comfortable by loosening his tie, untucking his shirt and unbuttoning his double-breasted suit jacket. He was still dressed for his limousine job.
"He raised up and I put my legs under him," Stocker said. "He put his arm across me and held on. He clenched his jaw. I said, 'No, you've got to open your mouth and let air in.' I said, 'It's OK,' and he relaxed. He let out his last breath of air and it was over."
Stocker and her roommate saw Redmond at the gate to their apartment complex, on West Reno Avenue near Tropicana Avenue and Decatur Boulevard, the same complex where Thornton lived.
Keeton said police believe Redmond was leaving Thornton's second-floor apartment and walking down the stairs when Thornton shot him once in the back.
His car was parked in the lot, police said. He had made it to his car because there was blood on the door handle, Keeton said. After he got off work, he drove the MGM Grand hotel-casino's limousine to Industrial Road, where it is stored, and picked up his car, then drove to Thornton's apartment.
Police believe Redmond had crawled to the gate seeking help.
Victor Rizzi, Stocker's roommate, called 911 while Stocker comforted Redmond. About three minutes before paramedics arrived, Redmond died.
Clenched in his hand was a key ring with a picture of his 2-year-old daughter, she said.
Hours later, police found Thornton's body in her apartment. She died from a self-inflicted head wound, police said.
Because of violent cases like the Redmond case, Metro opened its domestic violence unit last year, training officers to treat the cases "like the serious crime that it is," according to a news release issued when the unit opened.
But Pomerleau said while the unit may help other victims, "it didn't help my brother."
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