Search goes national for suspect in killings

Karen Zekan

Thursday, March 25, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

A nationwide manhunt is under way to track down Ronald Oneal Calvin, who Metro Police have linked to the slayings of his 72-year-old grandmother and a 58-year-old woman who shared their home.

Homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said a physical description of Calvin, 25, has been entered into the National Crime Information Center's computer database, which is accessible by all law enforcement agencies in the country.

The evidence against Calvin includes bodies discovered Tuesday night inside the three-bedroom apartment in the 1900 block of North Jones Boulevard where he had been living with his grandmother and the elder woman's friend. The victims' names have been withheld until the Clark County Coroner's Office can notify family members.

Additionally police have photos of Calvin's bloodied hands and freshly scratched neck taken by officers three days before the bodies were found.

The officers were patrolling the far east end of Vegas Valley Drive when they observed a man, later identified as Calvin, sitting behind the wheel of a white 1989 Chevrolet Celebrity. The officers had stopped to ask if he needed help when they saw the blood on his hands.

"(Calvin) told the officers that he had been in a fight in North Las Vegas and that the other person had a knife," Petersen said. The cuts, Calvin explained to the officers, came from "having to defend himself."

Suspicious of the response, police asked for the man's license and were handed an identification card from California. Their concern increased when Calvin produced for them the vehicle's registration bearing a name other than his own.

The officers contacted dispatchers, who in turn directed other officers to the address on the registration, Petersen said. It turned out to be a dead end, though, because Calvin's grandmother -- the car's owner -- hadn't updated her vehicle registration with her current address on Jones Boulevard.

Instinct told the officers to document what they saw, having found nothing to arrest Calvin on during the hour they detained him.

"It's not a crime to have blood on your hands," Petersen said. "The officers then had no way of knowing about the homicide. They had to let him go."

Calvin became the prime suspect in the case shortly after detectives began working the double homicide Tuesday night and learned that the 72-year-old woman's white Celebrity was missing.

The apartment complex's office staff provided police with a tenant information sheet on the unit's renters, which disclosed the license plate number on the elderly woman's car.

The plate matched the one on the car stopped Saturday afternoon with Calvin behind the wheel.

"People may try to place blame," Petersen said, given than police had Calvin in their custody but had to release him. But he pointed out that if vehicle's owners had updated the registration, "They would have found the bodies. Either way, the two victims are still gone."

Petersen praised the patrol officers for going the "extra mile," photographing the blood and documenting their encounter with Calvin in a report.

"Calvin has not escaped justice," Petersen said. "He just has not been located yet."

Calvin has relatives in California, although his whereabouts since Saturday are unknown, Petersen said. Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide section 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.