Gabriel George Valenzuela, 24, male, was a College of Southern Nevada nursing student who was shot outside his family’s home in the 5500 block of West Dewey Drive, near Russell and Lindell roads, shortly after midnight on August 9, 2017. Police said he had just pulled into the driveway and checked his mail when he confronted a group of four young men; he was shot at least three times and rushed to a hospital, where he died.
The Clark County coroner ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds. Family members were inside the house and heard the gunfire.
Detectives initially had no suspects, but within days the investigation focused on four people seen together shortly before the crime, including in a white Mercury Grand Marquis tied to one suspect. A neighbor’s detailed observation of that car and its license plate, along with surveillance footage and forensic work, helped piece together what happened. An appellate summary later noted that the autopsy documented four gunshot wounds—head, abdomen, and both ankles—and that the four defendants had set out to “hit a house” in the neighborhood that night.
Arrests followed quickly. On August 10–11, 2017, police arrested 18-year-old Demario Lofton-Robinson and his 14-year-old brother; days later, on August 15–16, officers arrested 22-year-old Davontae Wheeler and 20-year-old Raekwon Robertson. A grand jury subsequently indicted three of the men that December on charges including murder and conspiracy to commit robbery; police and court records described the killing as unfolding during an attempted robbery as Valenzuela stood in his driveway. Lofton-Robinson gave a jailhouse interview denying he had confessed, but an arrest report stated he admitted aiming a shotgun at Valenzuela’s chest and firing.
The case moved through the courts over the next two and a half years. In February 2020, a jury convicted Robertson of first-degree murder, attempted robbery, and conspiracy, and convicted Wheeler of second-degree murder and conspiracy. The Review-Journal reported that Lofton-Robinson remained awaiting trial at that time, while his younger brother—14 during the shooting—had already pleaded guilty and testified at the trial. On appeal, court records show Robertson received a sentence of 28 years to life, while Wheeler received consecutive terms of 24 to 72 months for conspiracy and 10 years to life for second-degree murder.
What began as an ordinary return home in the early hours turned violent in seconds, leaving a promising student mortally wounded at his own front door. The arrests and convictions that followed filled in the outlines: four young men in hoodies, a planned robbery, a white Grand Marquis slipping through the neighborhood, the frantic rush to the hospital, and a family listening in horror from just inside the walls. The court record now holds the names, the charges, and the sentences; the driveway on Dewey Drive holds the memory of a life cut short.
