4-12-2011 Nevada:LAS VEGAS -- New evidence has connected a rapist to two brutal sexual assault cases. DNA test results show the man shot and killed by police April 4 is the same rapist who struck in northwest Las Vegas last month.
The Val D'Isere Townhouse complex is gated, but in the early hours of March 30, violence shattered the quiet, peaceful community.
Val D'Isere resident Glenroy Jones was alarmed to learn a fellow resident was raped by an attacker who had been hiding in her home.
"This is such a quiet neighborhood," Jones said. "I'd be very glad if they would start a neighborhood watch in here."
Police say the man bound the woman but untied her after he sexually assaulted her. She fought back and injured him before he ran off.
Five days later, a man broke into another woman's home across town, raping her and creating a tense 12-hour standoff with police. Police eventually shot and killed the man, 48-year-old Michael Chevalier.
Police say Chevalier committed both crimes. Police say his injury during the first crime helped connect him to the second attack.
"He was injured when the victim fought back, and we have DNA evidence, blood evidence," Duvall said. "There are actually some striking similarities between the two crimes."
Chevalier committed the first rape in a modern neighborhood near Durango Drive and Washington Avenue. The second crime happened more than 10 miles away near Charleston Boulevard and Mojave Road. He may be dead now, but police are still investigating his last whereabouts.
"We haven't discounted the likelihood that he was staying in his car, although we're not 100 percent on that," Lt. Duvall said.
Word quickly spread at Val D'Isere that the rapist who struck the community has been dead for a week.
"I'm relieved really, because it's just crazy knowing that that could have happened to someone in my neighborhood," resident Mariah Kelly said.
Police say their evidence is strong, and these sexual assault cases are officially closed. They say they are not investigating any sexual assault cases that bear similar characteristics. They have, however, released surveillance images in case other victims do exist.
"If there are other victims, I can tell you - based on the reports we are reading - we have not seen it of this magnitude or this brutality. So if they do exist, if anyone knows anything more about this individual or about the crimes he's committed, or whether or not they're victims of similar crimes, we need them to contact Metro," said Lt. Duvall.
Chevalier, meanwhile, had a criminal record. He was convicted of manslaughter in Michigan in 1983. ..Source.. by Aaron Drawhorn, Reporter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Man killed in hostage standoff had assaulted another woman, police say
4-11-2011 Nevada:
A man killed by police this month after holding a woman hostage and sexually assaulting her had attacked another woman less than a week earlier, Las Vegas police said Monday.
Blood evidence linked Michael Dean Chevalier, 48, to both crimes, said Lt. Robert DuVall, head of the Sexual Assault Detail.
The first sexual assault occurred in the northwest valley in the early hours of March 30. Chevalier entered a townhouse near Durango Drive and Washington Avenue about 2:30 a.m. and tied up a woman inside, DuVall said.
When he untied the woman, she fought back and caused him to bleed in the home, he said.
Detectives used that blood to identify Chevalier as the attacker.
"Our evidence is so strong that we're closing that case," DuVall said.
Police were investigating the possibility that Chevalier entered the townhouse through an unlocked door, he said.
Police spokesman Marcus Martin said Chevalier might have been stalking his first victim.
"There's evidence he was watching her," he said.
Four days later, Chevalier held a woman hostage and sexually assaulted her in her apartment during a 12-hour standoff with police.
Chevalier randomly entered the woman's apartment at the Sedona Hills complex on Charleston Boulevard near Fremont Street the afternoon of April 3, police said.
Officers were negotiating with Chevalier to surrender when he fired several shots at a sedan entering a parking lot, which he might have thought was driven by an undercover officer, police said.
SWAT officers were called to the scene, and the standoff ended at 4:30 a.m. the next day.
When SWAT officers entered the woman's apartment, Chevalier fired at them. One officer responded with a single shot, killing him.
Police have not said how Chevalier entered the woman's apartment, but Rhonda Foster, a resident in the apartment complex, told the Review-Journal that Chevalier is thought to have entered through an unlocked front door.
Foster said she spoke to a maintenance man, who told her police broke through several walls in nearby apartments to enter the woman's apartment. The account was confirmed by Las Vegas police.
The second-story apartment where the standoff occurred had only one stairwell that led to its front door.
SWAT Sgt. Mike Quick, 43, and patrol officer Aaron Perez, 35, have been placed on paid administrative leave since the shooting. Perez was not involved in the SWAT raid that ended the standoff.
Chevalier was convicted of manslaughter in May 1983 in Genesee County, Mich., according to public records.
DuVall said that he couldn't elaborate on the sexual assault during the hostage situation because of the internal investigation into the officer-involved shooting but that the two cases have "striking similarities."
Not much is known about Chevalier and his time in Southern Nevada, he said. Police suspect he might have been living in his car.
DuVall said police are unsure whether Chevalier assaulted anybody else in Las Vegas, and he urged people to call police if they suspect Chevalier committed other crimes. ..Source.. by Antonio Planas
No comments:
Post a Comment