Possible murder-suicide investigated

Victim told family she was leaving boyfriend

A 20-year-old woman told her family she intended to leave her boyfriend. Two days later, the couple was discovered dead in an apparent murder-suicide in southwest Las Vegas.

The woman and her boyfriend were found dead Thursday morning from gunshot wounds at Cantera At Coronado Ranch Apartments, 7600 S. Rainbow Blvd., the Metropolitan Police Department said.

“The most dangerous part in any domestic violence situation is when the victim goes to leave,” homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Thursday.

Maintenance workers found the couple inside an apartment just after 11:30 a.m. when they showed up to do some repair work, Spencer said.

Evidence indicates the fatal shootings were a murder-suicide, said Spencer, standing in the complex parking lot Thursday. A handgun was found next to the man’s body.

In a phone call Tuesday, the woman told a family member she wanted to leave her boyfriend, he said.

The next day, the woman’s family asked police to check on her because they hadn’t heard from her. Police responded but found nothing out of the ordinary, Spencer said. The apartment door was closed, and police couldn’t find the man or woman.

Her family filed a missing persons report about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Police spoke with some neighbors although they, too, didn’t report anything unusual, Spencer said. Metro had no prior history of domestic violence involving the man or woman, who both moved to the Las Vegas Valley in February.

Resources are available to those victimized by domestic violence, Spencer said. He recommended the Family Justice Center at 861 N. Mo

DEATHS

“Sir, if you’re not answering the court’s question, that is a basis for me not to allow you to represent yourself,” Villani said. “You understand that?”

“I comprehend,” said Benson, who added that the word “understand” is defined in a dictionary as “to stand under the jurisdiction, and I do not stand under the jurisdiction.”

Sovereign citizens are known for financial scams, nonsensical court filings and occasional violence. Benson — who has said that he never claimed to be a sovereign citizen — has proclaimed in court filings that he is “not a person,” showed his “proof of life” with blue footprints and issued orders from a nonexistent court.

He was charged twice in Clark County over fraudulent checks; was accused by prosecutors last year of squatting in a Las Vegas condo; and was arrested last year on charges stemming from allegations of a takeover of a bank-owned house in the northwest valley.

Benson pleaded guilty in January to two felonies, each from separate

cases against him. With one plea, he admitting to offering a false instrument for filing or recording, specifically, filing a fake lease with the Clark County recorder’s office. With the other, he pleaded guilty to false representation concerning title, filing a “lis pendens” with the county, or notice of legal action, against the foreclosed house he was accused of trying to take over.

In May, he received five years of probation and a suspended prison sentence of 24 to 60 months in one case and two years of probation and a suspended sentence of 12 to 30 months in the other.

Besides being ordered to prison in one case, Benson was ordered last week in the other case to serve 90 days in Clark County Detention Center and to be dishonorably discharged from his probation, court records show.

The Review-journal reported in 2016 on Benson’s history of unusual court filings, as well as some of his associates and homes linked to him. He sued the paper, this reporter and several others in 2017. A federal judge dismissed the case this year.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.