In the spring of 2017, the life of 19-year-old Caucasian female Alyssa Sayago was tragically cut short in a violent encounter. On the evening of March 13, she was found in the backyard of a vacant house in a northwest Las Vegas neighborhood with a single gunshot wound to her head. Her death was quickly ruled a homicide by the Clark County coroner's office.
Investigators soon uncovered that Sayago had been lured to the abandoned home under the pretense of a marijuana deal, a transaction she had only recently begun to engage in on a small scale.
The plot was a setup for a robbery, orchestrated by several individuals. Daelin Wagner, 18 at the time, is believed to have coordinated the deadly encounter remotely via his phone. He initially arranged to meet Sayago at a local YMCA but then changed the location to the vacant house on Copper Knoll Avenue. Feeling wary, Sayago was on the phone with a friend as she arrived at the dark house. She was met by at least one young man who persuaded her to enter the backyard. Shortly after, the friend on the phone heard the fatal events unfold.
The investigation led to the arrests of multiple suspects. Khari James, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was arrested in California. According to police reports, James later admitted to an associate that he was the one who shot Sayago, claiming she had sprayed mace in his face during the attempted robbery. Daelin Wagner was apprehended in Texas. Both he and James faced charges of murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, and conspiracy to commit robbery. James was to be tried as an adult.
Further investigation identified two other individuals connected to the crime. Tracena Danay Brown, 19, was arrested on suspicion of being the getaway driver, though the charges of murder, robbery, and conspiracy against her were later dismissed. In January 2018, nearly a year after the murder, police arrested 19-year-old Latrell Stanley. His arrest was based on latent fingerprints found at the crime scene and his resemblance to a witness's description of a suspect who fled. Stanley was charged with murder, first-degree kidnapping, robbery, and conspiracy. The case saw some legal back-and-forth, including a judge dismissing and a grand jury later indicting Wagner on murder and related charges.
