In the winter of 2017, the life of 27-year-old Alyssa Velasco, a Black mother from Las Vegas, Nevada, was tragically cut short. On the night of January 18th, Velasco and a man named Myron Manghum, 33, were fatally shot in an apartment on the 900 block of West Washington Avenue. The Clark County coroner's office would later confirm that Velasco died from gunshot wounds to the head and neck, while Manghum died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The grim discovery was made after police
responded to a call about a man with gunshot wounds to his hands in the 700 block of McWilliams Avenue. Officers followed a trail of blood from the injured man, Johnny Brooks, back to the nearby apartment where they found the bodies of Velasco and Manghum. Brooks, who survived the ordeal, would become a central and complicated figure in the investigation that followed.
Investigators determined that two men, who had been at the residence earlier that evening, were allowed back into the apartment. An argument over drugs reportedly broke out, which quickly escalated into deadly violence. During the shooting, Velasco's brother, Brandon Barnes, was on the phone with his sister and tragically heard her scream, "No, no, no!".
Within a week of the murders, Las Vegas police arrested 31-year-old Durwin Allen in connection with the double homicide. A second suspect, Terrell Stewart, was also later charged and awaited a separate trial. The case against Allen initially seemed strong, with Johnny Brooks identifying him as the person who shot both him and Manghum. However, the prosecution's case hit a major snag when Brooks, their key witness, later recanted his identification of Allen during court proceedings. Brooks, who had to be arrested in Texas and brought back to Nevada to testify, claimed he could not remember the details of the incident. This development led to legal challenges and a temporary release to house arrest for Allen.
