Suspect admits to helping dismember, dispose of body in vacant lot, police say

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Friday, Feb. 3, 2017 | 9:30 p.m.

Inside a scorched suitcase in a dusty desert lot, detectives made a grisly discovery, a man’s body parts, minus his head, hands and parts of his legs, according to a Metro Police arrest report.

Authorities this week identified two suspects — brothers-in-law Anthony L. Newton, 37, and George Macaperdas, 31 — arrested in the slaying of Ulyses Molina. A motive for the killing hasn’t been released.

Newton and Macaperdas each were booked at the Clark County Detention Center on counts of murder, kidnapping, robbery and conspiracy, according to jail logs. Macaperdas was arrested Wednesday, and Newton has been in custody since early January.

Police allege Molina was killed Christmas night, and it wasn’t until three days later his remains were dumped in a dirt lot and burned in the 2000 block of Dolly Lane, near Lake Mead and Lamb boulevards.

Early on Dec. 28, a homeless woman at a nearby camp heard car doors slam and the squeal of car tires and later in the morning, about 9 a.m., found the suitcase, police said. Molina’s remains were identified after his family filed a missing person’s report on Jan. 1.

Detectives combing through surveillance video identified a suspect car driving through a nearby apartment complex, police said. And about the same time in early January that Newton was arrested, a witness came forward linking Newton and Macaperdas to the slaying, police said.

The witness told detectives he and his roommate were at their apartment when Molina and, shortly thereafter, Newton arrived and got into an argument, according to the report.

The witness and his roommate, who was acquainted with both the men, stepped outside, and when they returned, Molina was on the floor with blood coming from his head, the report said.

The witness reported that Newton pointed a gun at him and that Macaperdas arrived moments later, police said. Macaperdas walked to Molina, who was on the living room floor, kicked him and yelled, “You are screwing my sister!” the witness told police.

The suspects tied Molina up, and Newton stepped on the victim's neck until he stopped moving, according to the report. They then dragged his body into the bathroom.

Newton’s father said his son told him the day after Christmas that he’d killed a man and that the body was in the father's backyard.

The father ordered him to remove the body from his property and then left, police said. The man told detectives he never saw the body.

When detectives interviewed Macaperdas before his Wednesday arrest, he admitted to tying up Molina and helping Newton dispose of the body, according to the report.

Macaperdas said he and Newton dismembered the body in Newton’s father’s house before driving to the vacant lot and dumping the remains.