Thursday, May 15, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.
A 25-year-old man arrested Monday in the slaying of a tourist from Utah told Metro Police that he was there when the former model died, but that she died after she fell from a window of an apartment complex laundry room.
Police allege Shod Walker used a landscaping rock to bludgeon 39-year-old Simone Hirst, who was found the morning of April 28 in an alley near 11th Street and Stewart Avenue.
A police report describes Hirst as behaving wildly in the last few hours of her life -- dancing naked around a downtown apartment in front of strangers, climbing in and out of windows, having sex with at least two men and smoking crack cocaine.
Walker's arrest came as a result of a statement that a Stewart Avenue resident gave to police. He told investigators that he had seen Walker and Hirst in the area where Hirst's body was found, the report says.
Walker pleaded not guilty this morning to charges of murder with a deadly weapon at his first court appearance before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle.
He is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail. Oesterle set May 19 for Walker to appear for a preliminary hearing and to request bail.
Defense attorney Gregg Denue said while he had not fully investigated the case, his client maintains his innocence.
"He denies any involvement in this case," he said. "So far, the only witnesses saying he did it are a bunch of crack heads."
Denue said Walker, who moved to Las Vegas from Tennessee a few months ago, has no prior drug convictions.
"As far as I know, he has no history of drug use," he said.
The police report says Walker told the man he killed Hirst and threatened to "get him" if he went to the police.
Hirst, a former model, was visiting Las Vegas from Park City, Utah, with boyfriend William Rothstein to celebrate her 39th birthday. After a night out on the town, the pair returned to the Bellagio, where they were staying. As their cab pulled up to the hotel, they got into a fight and Hirst jumped out.
She hopped into a cab and told the driver she wanted to be taken somewhere to buy crack. Police interviewed the driver, who said he dropped her off in front of Binion's Horseshoe at 123 Fremont St.
The hotel's surveillance video shows Hirst getting out of the cab and sitting on the ground. Several people are shown trying to help her, the report says. The video shows her getting into another cab in front of Binion's at 2:40 a.m.
The driver of the second cab also told police Hirst was interested in buying crack. Hirst saw a man and two women walking down Fremont Street and she yelled to the man, the report says.
The man walked over to the cab and Hirst asked him for crack, the man told police. The man and two women got into the cab with Hirst and told the driver to take them to the Sunflower Apartments at 1500 E. Fremont St.
In the man's third-floor apartment, Hirst bought $20 worth of crack and smoked it with him. Hirst took off her clothes and danced around the apartment, making a lot of noise, the police report says.
She and the man had sex, the report says, then he asked her to leave because she continued being loud and the man didn't want to get in trouble with the building manager.
Walker told police he met Hirst on Fremont Street. Walker asked her to have sex with him, the police report says, and they headed to apartment in the 100 block of North 15th Street, where an acquaintance of Walker's lived.
The acquaintance told police he let Walker and a tall blonde woman into his apartment, where they had sex in a bedroom, then left through a back bedroom window, the police report says.
A short time later, about 5:45 a.m., a resident of Stewart Avenue was sitting outside waiting for a ride when he saw Walker, whom he knew as "Shadow," walk by with a woman who matched the description of Hirst, the police reports says.
He watched them walk behind 1019 Stewart, then he saw Walker walking alone farther up Stewart a few minutes later. About 20 minutes after that, Walker came by wearing different clothes, the man told police.
"Shadow walked up to him and told him, 'You didn't see me with that chick,' " the report says. "Shadow also said the girl was dead or that he killed the girl, and the cops would be in the area soon."
The resident went to police with his story May 1. At some point after that, Walker approached him at a 7-Eleven and said he heard he was talking to the cops and threatened to "get him" if he was.
On May 7 police found Walker in an apartment near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard. He agreed to go to the homicide offices to be interviewed. He gave conflicting stories about his dealings with Hirst.
Police arrested Walker after a polygraph test. Walker told police he wanted to tell them what happened. He said he took her to an apartment complex laundry room at 1019 Stewart.
"Walker said Hirst kept asking him for crack and became angry," the police report says. Walker said he walked out of the laundry room to get away from her.
"Walker said Hirst then started to climb out the open window rather than walk out the door. She had her feet on the windowsill and fell out of the window, hitting her head on the ground," the police report says.
He told police she might have hit her head on a landscaping rock and thought she might be dead, the report says, but he was afraid to call police.
Detectives told Walker the trauma to Hirst's head was not consistent with a fall, and that she had two cuts on her neck. An autopsy showed Hirst's head was probably against the ground when it was struck by the rock, according to the report.
"Walker lied to detectives about every occurrence with Simone Hirst the morning of her death," the report says.
Walker was scheduled to be in Las Vegas Justice Court for his initial appearance this morning.
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