License plate reader tips Las Vegas police off to murderer missing for year as Nevada officials remain quiet
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Police arrested a convicted murderer who was missing for more than a year after a license plate reader detected a suspicious vehicle, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Tuesday.
As the 8 News Now Investigators first reported Monday, Nevada prison officials did not know Jeremy Kelly, 43, was missing until they realized he was not in custody ahead of a scheduled parole hearing.
On Tuesday, prosecutors wrote in court documents that the Nevada Department of Corrections determined “a fugitive warrant was no longer needed” and the agency “no longer requires Kelly to be in custody.”
In June 1996, Las Vegas Metro police arrested Kelly, then 15, in the shooting death of Terry Dixon. At the time of his arrest, Kelly and the victim’s son were driving the victim’s stolen truck, documents said. Prosecutors alleged Kelly, the victim’s son and three other men conspired to rob Dixon, but shot and killed him instead. A judge later sentenced Kelly to two consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole.
Kelly was in custody at High Desert State Prison outside Las Vegas when the Nevada Parole Board granted him parole in 2016, documents said. Less than two years later, Kelly violated his parole and returned to the custody of the Nevada Department of Corrections.
In December 2017, Las Vegas Metro police arrested Kelly after they found him driving with a gun, drugs and nearly $8,000 in cash, documents said. An officer had stopped Kelly for driving without his headlights illuminated.
Kelly later pleaded guilty to charges of a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of heroin, documents said. A federal judge then sentenced Kelly to 42 months in prison with 18 months of credit for the time he served in custody awaiting trial.
According to county prosecutors, after his federal sentence ended in June 2022, Kelly “was mistakenly and incorrectly released from federal custody” and not returned to state prison for violating probation, documents said.
It was not until last December the department of corrections realized Kelly was not in their custody. The realization came as Kelly would have been eligible for parole in January 2024. Judge Jacqueline Bluth issued a warrant for Kelly’s arrest on Jan. 25, records said.
On Friday, Feb. 16, around 5 p.m., several officers were called to the area of Rainbow Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue in the northwest Las Vegas valley for a suspicious vehicle, documents said. Police believed Kelly was in the car, though it was unclear what about the vehicle or its appearance led police to Kelly. The vehicle was not the same one involved in Kelly’s 2017 arrest, documents said.
Police stopped Kelly on Cheyenne near Buffalo Drive, they said. During his arrest Friday, Kelly identified himself by name and officers confirmed the warrant for his arrest.
In a filing late Tuesday, a senior deputy attorney general said “NDOC no longer requires Kelly to be in custody,” adding the parole board planned to “conduct a further review of parole for Kelly” in April, documents said.
It was unclear if Bluth would keep Kelly in jail ahead of that hearing or release him, as the prosecutor said.
Kelly’s listing on NDOC’s website continued to say he was in “out of state confinement” as of Tuesday. Kelly had not been in out-of-state confinement since June 2022, according to prosecutors, and was at the Clark County jail as of his latest arrest.
An NDOC spokesperson said a statement was in review but the 8 News Now Investigators had not received it as of Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the specifics of the case but highlighted the department’s early release programs.
A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.
In 2022, convicted murderer Porfirio Duarte-Herrera escaped from Southern Desert Correctional Center by breaking part of a window, climbing through it, and then scaling razor wire fences.
Duarte-Herrera escaped on a Friday night and prison staff did not report his escape until the following Tuesday morning. Duarte-Herrera had an illegal cell phone inside the prison and made several calls before his escape, documents said. Multiple agencies searched for Duarte-Herrera for two days.
Duarte-Herrera and Omar Rueda-Denvers were convicted in 2009 for killing Dorantes Antonio, who died when a bomb, hidden in a coffee cup, exploded. The incident happened at a parking garage at the Luxor hotel in 2007.
Duarte-Herrera was already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
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