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Divorce filed one month before family killed

Posted at 4:25 PM, Jun 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-01 08:45:34-04
Contact 13 has been working the phones and digging up records all day to look at what might have led up to Wednesday's tragedy.  
 
A family of 5 is dead at the hands of their own father and husband.
 
We found a pending divorce and a history peppered with crime.
 
The woman shot to death by her husband was trying to get away, trying to protect herself and her children.
 
She filed for divorce just one month ago and asked the court to shorten the time they would take to hear the case. Now that case will never be heard.
 
Neither Metro nor the coroner has confirmed the shooter's identity, but family court records show Phokeo Dej-Oudom married Jason Dej-Oudom, in Columbus, Ohio in July of 2000.  
 
The couple moved to Las Vegas with their three children in March 2015.  In her divorce filing, she asked for joint physical custody, but wanted the children to live primarily with her, citing a history of domestic violence and Child Protective Services involvement.  
 
She told the court the father is a flight risk and the children need to be in her care for educational purposes and stability. "[The] father cannot hold a job," she said. 
 
According to records filed on May 25, "The children's father had taken them back to Ohio without her knowledge or consent, forcing them to miss valuable school days, testing, etc."
 
She also accused him of trying to take the case out of Nevada's jurisdiction.  
 
Shortly after the divorce and custody request was filed, police were called. Las Vegas police confirmed a previous call for service at the apartment where the children were killed, but couldn't provide any details due to the current investigation. 
 
"[The father had] one report of domestic violence in June," says Lt. Dan McGrath.  "He had another one out of state, but that was in 2006-2007. I don't have all the facts of what the outcomes of those were...so there seems to be a history of domestic violence."
 
Contact 13 also found that Jason Dej-Oudom was a convicted felon. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to felony theft in a forgery case where he wrote himself a fraudulent check for more than $40,000 from an Ohio company.
 
Other Ohio offenses include possession of a weapon by a prohibited person and domestic violence with physical harm.
 
Dej-Oudom was sentenced to two years of supervised probation in the Ohio theft case.
 
The weapons charge was dismissed in 2007 and it's unclear what happened with the domestic violence case. Records show he pleaded not guilty and the case was closed in 2006.