In the early hours of a Tuesday morning in Las Vegas, on June 13, 2017, the life of 36-year-old Jason Harvey, a Black / African American male, was tragically cut short. Harvey was seated in the front passenger seat of a rental car on the 4100 block of Silver Dollar Avenue when a violent encounter unfolded. He, along with two other occupants, were shot by a fourth individual who was also inside the vehicle.
The Clark County coroner's office would later confirm that Harvey died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
The incident, which transpired near South Arville Street, was not a random act of violence; police believed that all four individuals in the car were acquainted. The driver of the vehicle, 31-year-old Tory Barnett, was also killed in the shooting. A third victim, Justin Brooks, who was seated in the back with the shooter, sustained a gunshot wound to the face but initially survived his injuries. He was rushed to University Medical Center in critical condition.
In the days following the brutal shooting, investigators worked to piece together the events that led to the double homicide. Their efforts led them to Inglewood, California, where, just four days after the incident, they arrested 29-year-old Delon Holston. Holston was identified as the passenger seated behind the driver who had opened fire on the other occupants of the car. He was subsequently extradited to Clark County to face charges for the killings.
Delon Holston was charged with two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, one count of attempted murder, and one count of robbery with a deadly weapon. During his trial, Holston's defense attorneys argued that the shooting was an act of self-defense, claiming that Harvey had threatened Holston's children and that the victims had attacked him hours before the shooting. They contended that Brooks had pointed a gun at Holston, which he then managed to disarm before firing. However, prosecutors asserted that there was no evidence to support a struggle over a gun. In May 2022, a jury found Delon Holston guilty on three counts of first-degree murder, as Justin Brooks had later succumbed to his injuries. A month later, Holston was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
