Indictment returned in killing of student

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, June 26, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

A Clark County grand jury has indicted a Las Vegas man in the killing a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, student in her apartment.

The indictment, unsealed Wednesday before District Judge Gene Porter, charges Jeremy Allen Crozier with open murder in the death of his former girlfriend, 24-year-old Rie Shibuya.

Crozier, 21, also faces one count each of robbery and possession of credit cards without the cardholder's consent. He will be arraigned before District Judge Donald Mosley on July 2.

"There's a possibility that this case will be a death penalty case," Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz told Porter.

But Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee, Crozier's attorney, said, "Every time a murder charge is filed it's potentially a death penalty case. But until the case goes to the committee I don't want to speculate on it. I certainly hope it's not a death case. And I don't think it should be based on what I know."

Coffee said there appears to be mitigating circumstances.

"It appears there was an ongoing relationship," he said. "This looks as if it was some type of domestic situation."

Police discovered Shibuya's body when her friends went to her apartment in the 1200 block of South Torrey Pines Drive to check on her.

After a property manager pried open the door, the friends found Shibuya's body in the living room wrapped in a sheet, which was taped up.

Several cardboard boxes were taped together "in a manner that would indicate that the body was to be placed in them," according to the police report.

Autopsies show Shibuya was killed about two weeks before her body was discovered and that she'd died from strangulation.

The body was identified using DNA tests, Schwartz said.

The indictment also charges Crozier with stealing three of Shibuya's credit cards and her 1996 Nissan after the slaying. The Nissan was later found abandoned, Schwartz said.

"He was arrested in close proximity to where her credit cards were found," Schwartz said.

Crozier had flagged down a police cruiser in the 3900 block of East Sunset Road and surrendered to patrol officers, after authorities released his name and photograph to the media.