On the evening of March 19, 2017, Latoya Norgina Woolen, a 39-year-old Black/African American woman, was fatally shot in Las Vegas, Nevada. After finishing some shopping at a Dollar Tree, she was sitting on a short wall in a parking lot near Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway, apparently waiting for a ride. Her belongings, including her purse, phone, and recent purchases, were found with her, suggesting that robbery was not the motive for the attack.
Surveillance footage from the
shopping center pieced together the tragic events of that night. The videos showed a beige 1980 Dodge van driving past Woolen. The driver, later identified as 55-year-old Frank Campis, parked the van, turned off the lights, and got out. He then repositioned the van nearby, exited again, and walked toward Woolen. Tragically, she likely never saw him approach from behind with a shotgun. A muzzle flash was captured on the surveillance video as a single shot was fired, and Woolen fell to the ground. Authorities were alerted to the scene around 8:45 p.m. after multiple people called 911 to report finding a woman's body. An autopsy later confirmed that Latoya Woolen died from a shotgun wound to the head and neck.
Investigators used surveillance videos from multiple businesses to track the suspect's movements. They observed Campis entering one of the same stores as Woolen shortly after she did, though they did not appear to interact. His van was spotted by patrol officers on April 4 at a nearby casino. Through social media, detectives were able to connect the van to Campis and confirm his presence in Las Vegas on the day of the shooting through his check-in statuses at local casinos before and after the incident.
Frank Campis, an Arizona resident, was later found sleeping in his van in a casino parking lot and was taken into custody. When questioned, he claimed to have been in the "wrong place at the wrong time". Campis eventually confessed to shooting Woolen, stating that he had mistaken her for someone else with whom he had a disagreement. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. Despite his defense citing factors such as remorse, a lack of a recent criminal history, and intoxication at the time of the shooting, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years, with an additional consecutive sentence of 8 to 20 years for the use of a deadly weapon.
