Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Report details man’s arrest in portable toilet; victim ID’ed

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Mark Hoffman

Hoffman's arrest

A man who died Friday allegedly at the hands of a man who was later arrested hiding in a portable toilet has been identified.

Steven Kelly, 35, of Las Vegas, died from blunt force trauma to the head, the Clark County Coroner’s Office said today.

Kelly’s death has been ruled a homicide and Mark Hoffman, 47, is facing a charge of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with his death.

A police report released Tuesday provided further details about Hoffman’s arrest.

At about 9 p.m. Thursday, dispatchers received two reports of a disturbance at 150 E. Hoover Ave., which is northeast of the intersection of Main Street and Charleston Boulevard.

One caller told police a man with long, blond hair in his 40s wearing blue jeans, a red T-shirt and a jean jacket had hit another man with a pipe, the report says.

The officer responding to the scene saw a man fitting that description, but before he could turn his cruiser around the man had left the scene, police said.

The officer went to the address reported in the call and found Kelly hunched over on the floor with severe head trauma, the report says.

As detectives arrived to begin investigating the homicide, other officers began searching for Hoffman, whose identity had been determined from previous incidents at that address, according to the report.

An officer on patrol in the area of Boulder Avenue and First Street noticed a portable toilet with an “occupied” sign on it. Hoffman exited the toilet after the officer ordered him out, according to the report. He had blood on his clothing as well as a stab wound to the lower torso, the report says.

Hoffman reportedly told the arresting officer he had been in a fight and had hurt the other person after that person stabbed him, the report says. He said he believed the man had sexually assaulted his wife and that the man had stabbed him with a kitchen knife, he reportedly told police.

Paramedics were called to take Hoffman to University Medical Center’s trauma unit.

Hoffman reportedly told one emergency medical technician that because the man had stabbed him, he retaliated by striking him several times with a blunt object and described a metal pipe wrapped with orange tape. He told the technician the man, who he knew from previous drug purchases, the report says, was trying to break into his home.

Police later recovered a similar pipe at the apartment on Hoover Avenue.

In the plumbing area of the portable toilet, investigators found a beanie cap with a folding Swiss Army-type knife inside, the report says. Police said in a release Friday they believed Hoffman’s wound was self-inflicted.

As the investigation progressed, detectives interviewed several witnesses, including the man who called police reporting the alleged pipe attack. The man told investigators Hoffman, Kelly and a woman had invited him to their apartment to celebrate Hoffman’s recent release from jail, according to the report.

The man further told police that as he walked up the stairs to the apartment, he heard Kelly and Hoffman get into a verbal dispute. Hoffman alleged Kelly had slept with his wife while he was in jail, the man told police.

As the group entered the apartment, the man said he saw Hoffman, without warning, grab a steel pipe and strike Kelly with it three times, the report indicates.

Hoffman is being held without bond in the Clark County Detention Center and is set to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court on Wednesday morning.

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