Monday, March 15, 2004 | 11:28 a.m.
Local police are investigating seven deaths that either happened or were discovered since Friday, including a shooting at a Las Vegas mall Friday, an 8-month-old boy found dead in a North Las Vegas home Saturday, and a fatal domestic dispute in Henderson on Sunday, according to area police departments.
It was "just a bad weekend," Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro Police's homicide section said.
Monahan said he's looked over crime data from the last three years and couldn't find any trends to explain when a spike in homicides will occur.
Sunday night, the mother of the 8-month old boy was arrested and charged murder by child abuse, North Las Vegas Police said.
Inconsistencies in 28-year-old Maria Hermosillo-Dellamas' story as to how her baby, Heliberto Landeros, died as well as suspicious injuries found during the autopsy led police to charge her, Officer Tim Bedwell said.
Also arrested Sunday was a 54-year-old Henderson man who allegedly shot his wife after an argument Sunday afternoon.
Police responded to a report of gunfire in the 3100 block of Blossom Glen Drive around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Officer Shane Lewis said.
When police arrived they found 46-year-old Leslie Dennis suffering from a gunshot wound to the head, Lewis said. She later died at University Medical Center, he said.
Her husband, Jesse Dennis was charged with murder and was being held at the Henderson Detention Center Sunday night, Lewis said.
The Dennis' next-door neighbor of eight years Joe Millett said the neighborhood was shocked and heart broken by the death.
Millett said the Dennis' had one daughter in her late teens or early 20s. Leslie Dennis was a hostess at the California hotel, he said.
"She was really great, very personable," Millett said.
Millett said he and other neighbors didn't hear any loud arguments from the Dennis home recently.
"Maybe two or three times over eight years. But what married couple doesn't have that?" he said.
The husband was very quiet, Millett said, adding that when he drank "he got loud and obnoxious. We rarely exchanged words with him."
Also Sunday afternoon a man died after being shot by a friend while in an recreational vehicle outside Boulder Station, Monahan said.
The shooting apparently happened around 3 p.m. while the victim and a group of friends were doing methamphetamine together, he said.
A woman brought the victim to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center where he died. Monahan said police interviewed the woman but she was not a suspect and was not arrested. His name was not released this morning.
And on Sunday night, an 18-year-old man died and three others were injured after they were stabbed in a northwest Las Vegas apartment complex in what appears to be a gang-related brawl, police said.
Police arrived at Walker House Apartments, located at the 2700 block of Valley View, at 10 p.m. to find four men laying in the apartment parking lot, all with stab wounds, Monahan said.
Michael Adamchek died at the scene, he said. The three other victims were transported to University Medical Center where they are "getting aid for survivable wounds," Monahan said.
The stabbings were the result of an clash between two rival gangs, Monahan said.
"I do not think it was a planned encounter," he said. "This was just a chance encounter where a group of violent folks encountered another group violent folks."
The encounter may be connected to an earlier, similar homicide, Monahan said.
At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a stabbing and shooting at Tara Avenue and Arville, about half a mile from the later incident, where 24-year-old Manuel Antonio Hernandez died and another man was injured, he said.
"This may very well be a situation where the same group went from one scene to the next. There is a good chance they are related," Monahan said.
Several other deaths reported since Friday were still under investigation this morning including:
-- Friday morning's discovery of 21-year-old Marvin Eric Allen in a desert area behind an apartment complex near Craig Road and Lamont Street. Allen appeared to have been shot to death, Metro Police said.
-- The 6:45 p.m. Friday shooting of 29-year-old Bobby A. Williams in the parking lot outside the Boulevard Mall on Maryland Parkway, police and a mall official said. Williams had apparently just left a sporting goods store when he was shot.
Mall General Manager Cayse Osterlund said: "We consider it to be an isolated incident."
-- Metro's discovery of 28-year-old Antdrell Russum of Las Vegas lying on the curb on the 1500 block of W. Balzar Ave. about 8:30 p.m. Friday. Russum had not been there when officers had driven past minutes earlier, police said.
An autopsy determiend that Russum had died from a blow to the head.
-- A man in his 30s who was shot about 7 p.m. Saturday as he was about to enter his apartment on the 3300 block of Arville Street.
Authorities were withholding the man's name this morning pending family notification.
Police said that witnesses said they thought the killing was the result of gang activity in the apartment complex.
In addition to the deaths, a 20-year-old man was shot several times in his legs and lower torso in what police say was possibly a gang-related shooting in a parking lot of a North Las Vegas convenience store Sunday.
The man was in his car in a 7-Eleven parking lot at 810 E. Lake Mead Boulevard around 6:50 p.m. when another man began shooting at him, police said.
The victim and his vehicle were struck several times, and the man was shot more times after he left his car and ran through the parking lot.
The suspect left the area in a white Oldsmobile Cutlass or Chevrolet Monte Carlo that was being driven by another male. The car headed west on Lola Avenue police said.
The victim was taken to University Medical Center where he was in stable condition, police said.
Metro Police are asking that anyone with information about that shooting or the homicides call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or the Homicide section at229-3521.
Sun reporters Heather Rawlyk and Jen Lawson contributed to this report.
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