From the LVRJ:
Police say they were professional burglars who quickly became cold-blooded killers.
Cody David Winters, 27, also known as “Havoc,” and Natasha Galenn Jackson, 35, terrorized a southeast Las Vegas neighborhood Tuesday, police said, choosing their victims at random in a frantic attempt to escape capture.
Richard Ramos, 59, tried to protect his family when Winters and Jackson tricked their way into his home. Winters shot and killed Ramos after the two fought for Winters’ gun.
A few minutes later and a few houses away, a woman was shot in the stomach by Winters after he broke into her home to evade officers, police say. Her name has not been released, but she is in critical condition and not expected to survive, police said.
What prompted Winters and Jackson to go from theft to extreme violence remains a mystery. Winters was a recent transplant from Idaho with a long criminal history of selling drugs and abusing alcohol, but there wasn’t much violence in his background.
“We’re in complete shock,” said his sister, Trisha Gardner, 25. “I had no idea he was even in Las Vegas.”
The deadly spree started at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, after a Nevada Department of Transportation employee saw a white Nissan Altima on the side of U.S. Highway 95 near Tropicana Avenue and stopped to offer help, according to a police report released Wednesday.
The car had been stolen from a northwest valley neighborhood on July 8, however, and the couple using it had no intention of waiting on the highway for repairs, police said.
Police said Winters robbed the worker at gunpoint before transferring a bag of burglary tools, a television and several stolen items from the Altima to the NDOT vehicle....
After knocking on several doors, the couple walked west on Autumn Street, where they saw a car they hoped to steal in the driveway of the Ramos family home. They knocked on the door, telling Richard Ramos they needed help.
On Wednesday, Julie Ramos recalled being jolted from sleep by her husband’s last words.
“They need to use the phone,” he said.
Then she heard a gunshot.
Julie said she staggered into the room, where she saw Richard on the floor being stabbed with a screwdriver and trying to fight off his attackers. She said she tried to help, but Jackson attacked her, slamming her head against the floor until her 19-year-old son pulled Jackson away.
Three of the Ramos’ children — two teenagers and a 7-year-old — were in the home. The eldest children witnessed the attack.
Richard fought for his life, trying to get the gun, the police report said, but Jackson helped Winters pry Richard’s hands from the weapon.
Winters, angry after being beaten and bruised, then shot and killed Richard in front of his family. He might have also killed Julie, the police official said, but his gun jammed.
Julie and her three children hid briefly in a bathroom before escaping out a window and running to a neighbor’s house, she said. She had been stabbed four times in the neck and shoulder....
Winters broke a window to enter the home on Almondwood, waking the man and woman who lived there, police said. He demanded car keys, which the woman readily surrendered. But he shot her in the stomach, anyway, and dragged her outside as a hostage, according to the report and the police official.
When the wounded woman fell to the ground, several Metro officers shot and killed Winters. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/police-burglars-turned-killers-terrorized-neighborhood
While the one thug is dead, the female thugette need to sentenced to death, otherwise, why even have the death penalty. She is an animal who doesn't deserve to live and we put down vicious animals.
Put some public defender will make up excuses like blaming her partner, saying she had a rough upbringing or was high on drugs when they killed innocent people.
So sorry to hear about this! I hope that pig, Natasha gets what's coming to her. Too bad she didn't leave the scene feet first like her partner.
ReplyDeleteI'm still puzzled however about why the Ramos house? Was it just the first house they came across? Why did the perps carjack the mechanic? Where were they on their way to? Why risk the potential witnesses? Strange way to conduct a home invasion.
I'm also puzzled anyone in this day and age would open the door for anyone to use the phone. This is the age of the cell phone after all. Sure phones can lost their charge or get damaged but the Ramos family could have just offered to call someone for the stranger rather than risk opening the door for someone they didn't know.