Death of man, 72, ruled a homicide

Keith Paul

Friday, Aug. 4, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

A 49-year-old Las Vegas man was booked into the Clark County jail on murder charges Wednesday in the death of his roommate.

Metro Police originally were told the death was a suicide.

A 72-year-old man was found dead in a mobile home park in the 5900 block of West Tropicana Avenue Tuesday about 8:45 a.m. from a gunshot wound in his head. Police were called to the mobile home by a friend of the man, said Lt. Wayne Petersen of Metro's homicide unit.

The friend told police the victim's roommate, 49-year-old Donald Sjolseth, said the 72-year-old man committed suicide. But evidence at the scene and an autopsy were not consistent with the 72-year-old man's death being a suicide, Petersen said.

"The bullet trajectory just didn't look right," Petersen said. "Things had been moved at the scene. There was just something wrong about it."

Detectives located Sjolseth Wednesday and questioned him about the 72-year-old man's death. He was then booked into the jail on a murder charge, Petersen said.

Sjolseth had been arrested about two years ago on a domestic violence charge stemming from an assault on the older man, Petersen said.

In that incident, officers were met at the door by the older man, who appeared to have been hit several times and was bloody. Sjolseth apparently told officers he struck the older man in self defense, Petersen said.

The 72-year-old man's death is the 60th homicide so far this year in Metro's jurisdiction compared with 61 at the same time last year.