Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Charges filed in court in Lone Star murders

Only two of the three people arrested in the Lone Star restaurant murders -- a fired employee and a 15-year-old boy -- have been named in charging documents filed with the Las Vegas Justice Court.

Conspicuously absent from the complaint and from court Tuesday was Angela Colleen Love, 22, the girlfriend of 23-year-old ex-employee Marlo Thomas.

Love was alleged to have been the driver who transported Thomas and her brother to the scene of the double slaying, and later to central Nevada where they were arrested.

Thomas and 15-year-old Kenya Keita Hall, Love's brother, remain in the county jail on murder charges in the April 15 assault on the restaurant at Cheyenne Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard.

It is expected that prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Thomas but Hall is too young to be executed under Nevada law. Thomas has a history of violent crime and several years ago was certified as an adult and imprisoned for committing a robbery.

Part of the evidence gathered alleges that after the two victims were stabbed, Thomas instructed Hall to kill a third employee at the restaurant, but that was not done.

Sources also said that Thomas made statements before the incident that he was going to the restaurant to rob it and kill the employees.

Justice of the Peace Doug Smith, who declared at an earlier court hearing that the defendants were "a menace to society," set a preliminary hearing date on Tuesday for June 27. Until then, the pair will be held without bail.

District Attorney Stewart Bell said that while Love has been tagged as the driver, there is "insufficient evidence at this time to show that she knew the purpose" of the trip to the Lone Star.

He said that charges could be reinstated if new evidence surfaces.

The trio was captured in Mineral County, 310 miles north of Las Vegas, just hours after the bloody murders of two Lone Star employees.

Matthew Gianakis, 21, of Las Vegas, and Carl Dixon, 23, of North Las Vegas, were stabbed to death after Thomas and the teenager entered through the restaurant's rear door and demanded money from three employees, police alleged.

The bandits were armed with a pistol and a knife from the kitchen.

Gianakis was stabbed and staggered out the back door to a convenience store next door, where he collapsed. He died about three hours later during surgery at University Medical Center.

Dixon was hacked to death inside the restaurant but his body wasn't discovered for about 45 minutes.

While police have alleged that robbery was the primary motive, revenge has not been ruled out.

Thomas was fired from the restaurant six weeks ago after working there for three months.

The defendants were apprehended while riding in Love's car about 10 miles south of Hawthorne. The vehicle had been sought by police here since shortly after the slayings.

Mineral County sheriff's deputies pursued the car for one mile, but once the vehicle was stopped, the defendants offered no resistance.

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