(KTNV) — A woman arrested in connection with the death of a man whose body was found in a burning vehicle last month was not the only suspect police sought in the case, Channel 13 has learned.
The North Las Vegas Police Department recently announced the arrest of Marcella Jean Patterson as a suspect in the death of a 32-year-old man whose body was found in the area of Cheyenne Avenue and Civic Center Drive on August 17.
The Clark County coroner's office has since identified the man as David Weaver. According to an arrest report obtained by Channel 13 on Tuesday, Weaver was bleeding from an apparent gunshot wound to the head when his body was found in a burning white Lexus SUV in the 3200 block of N. Mary Dee Avenue. As of this report, Weaver's cause and manner of death were still pending.
Patterson, 42, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Sept. 4 for open murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, and third-degree arson.
The report outlining probable cause for Patterson's arrest reveals she was taken into custody during a barricade with law enforcement in the 4100 block of S. Paradise Road. According to the report, detectives had obtained an arrest warrant for another suspect, whose name is redacted, and who they believed had fled to California.
On Sept. 4, however, the FBI's Criminal Apprehension Team found Patterson and the unnamed suspect in the area near the Silver Sevens casino at approximately 1 a.m. When officers tried to arrest them, the man "barricaded himself inside of the [vehicle] and also attempted to keep Marcella from exiting," the report states.
"After about 2 hours, [the other suspect] continued to refuse to exit the vehicle and instead made the decision to inflict a single gunshot wound to [his] head, ending his own life," police wrote in the report.
The Clark County coroner's office has since identified the man who died during the barricade as 41-year-old Myron Jackson. Jackson died from a gunshot wound to the head, and his death was ruled a suicide, a county spokesperson told Channel 13 in an email.
According to information in the arrest report, Jackson may be the person who shot Weaver and set the SUV he was found in on fire.
Detectives talked to a friend of Weaver's, whose house he was at the night of August 16. According to the report, the friend told police Weaver received a phone call and "seemed upset" by it, then left a short time later.
According to the report, police collected evidence that after Weaver left his friend's house, he met up with Patterson and a third person — possibly Jackson, noting that cell phone records placed the three of them together in the time before Weaver was killed.
At some point before Weaver ended up with the SUV on Mary Dee Avenue, police speculate his phone was "either off, in airplane mode, or broken."
Surveillance footage from the area where the SUV was found showed a person police described as wearing a black beanie, a white shirt, and black shorts getting out of the driver's seat of the SUV. Detectives wrote that the man "appeared to be wiping the exterior of the vehicle down, presumably for fingerprints."
Another vehicle, identified by police as Patterson's car, was also seen in the area. Police say Patterson and the other man left the area together, leaving the white SUV with smoke coming from it.
In an interview with detectives after her arrest, Patterson confirmed she drove the other man away from the scene on Mary Dee Avenue, according to the report.
Detectives state they asked Patterson if she had seen news coverage about the body found there, and Patterson told them "she did see the news of the vehicle and knew about the body found inside." Investigators then asked "why she did not contact police after finding out a body was located in the SUV, and she could not provide an explanation," the report states.
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