Police in Nevada had arrested a man accused of carjacking another man, leading to his death, days before for carrying a knife, but the charges were dropped.
25-year-old Chanler McCloud faces charges of open murder, robbery, grand larceny and arson, for the death of 62-year-old Roy Kridler. McCloud was described as experiencing homeless and living in the tunnels under the Las Vegas valley, sources said Monday.
On Jan. 1, police responded to a reported robbery around 1:30 a.m. near Spring Mountain and Wynn roads just west of the Las Vegas Strip. Arriving officers found Kridler suffering from injuries. While explaining to the police what had happened, Kridler collapsed and died, police said.
Kridler told police he was the victim of a carjacking outside of a gentlemen’s club in the area. Kridler had driven the suspect to the area before the carjacking. A witness told police Kridler sometimes drove the car as an unlicensed taxicab.
On December 24, two Las Vegas Metro police officers arrested McCloud in a casino garage, documents said. McCloud was carrying an Arizona ID card and told police he was carrying a knife. Officers described the weapon as a “dagger with three sharp blades on the end.”
McCloud told police he uses the knife to “cut fruit, cut holes into carpel and as a took to set up his makeshift camp,” documents said.
“I asked McCloud if he uses the dagger for protection, to which he stated under extreme circumstances, he uses the blade to protect himself based on the area that he resides in,” an officer wrote in documents. “McCloud states he makes sure to carry the dagger when he wakes to Sin City where a bunch of dangerous people area.”
Police then arrested McCloud for carrying a concealed firearm or other deadly weapon. Records show prosecutors declined to file charges and McCloud was released from custody.
Detectives obtained surveillance video of a person driving Kridler’s vehicle, which they released to the public several days after the murder. About two weeks after the murder, investigators located Kridler’s vehicle in a tunnel just west of the Las Vegas Strip. The car’s driver’s seat had been set on fire, police said.
After his arrest on March 10, McCloud told police he was the man in the images they had shared with the media of the man driving Kridler’s car, police said.
Kridler died because of injuries sustained during the carjacking, police alleged. His manner of death was listed as homicide, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.
Judge Daniel Westmeyer denied McCloud bail during a hearing Saturday due to the murder charge. McCloud was due in court again on March 27.
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