Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Police witness: Slaying victim beaten for hours in attempt to get money

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Jonathan Reyes was arrested June 13, 2013, on counts including murder, kidnapping and robbery for his role in the April beating and death of Abraham Mathews.

Two men have been charged in the April slaying of a man they were allegedly trying to steal money from, according to a criminal complaint released Friday.

Eric Orduna and Jonathan Reyes each face six charges, including kidnapping, robbery with a deadly weapon and murder with a deadly weapon, in the death of 37-year-old Abraham Mathews, whose body was found along the road early April 10 near Pecos Road and Owens Avenue.

Reyes was arrested by police on Thursday and is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. Orduna remains at large.

Mathews had been missing for several days when his body was found.

His parents told Metro Police they’d last seen him on April 5 when he came home from work and that Mathews told them he was leaving to get the windows tinted on the family’s 1995 white Honda Civic, according to a police report.

The car and Mathews’ cell phone and wallet were not with the body when it was found, police said.

Police interviewed Mathews’ parents and visited his workplace in the week after his body was found, but there wasn’t much movement in the case until the car resurfaced earlier this month.

On June 2, North Las Vegas Police ran a check on the license plates of a white 1995 Honda Civic parked at a convenience store on Owens Avenue, less than a mile from where Mathews’ body was found.

Police impounded the vehicle after noticing the license plate was associated with a different vehicle and that the car’s vehicle identification number had been altered, according to a police report.

The driver of the vehicle contacted police later that day and provided more details about the events leading up to Mathews’ death, police said.

The driver, who was not identified by name, reported witnessing Mathews being bound with plastic zip ties and then kicked, punched and beaten with bricks and a broom stick for several hours by two men who were trying to force Mathews to sign a Western Union Money Order to take his money, according to the police report.

The witness referred to the two men as “Knight Owl” and “Tinny,” who were later identified by police as Orduna and Reyes, respectively, according to the report.

A second witness who was present during some portions of Mathews’ beating also identified Orduna as one of the men behind the attack, police said. That witness told police that Orduna admitted killing Mathews because he believed Mathews owed him money for drugs, according to the report.

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