Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Police: Cellphone video caught fatal stabbing at NLV house party

Sergio Arevalo

North Las Vegas Police

Sergio Arevalo

Attendees of a North Las Vegas house show could only tell detectives that a fight had broken out in the backyard and that it had spilled onto the street.

But no one could say how Omar Cedano, 21, was fatally injured that late night Dec. 28 in the 3800 block of Stanley Avenue. That’s until a cellphone video, which captured the slaying, turned up.

The video showed Sergio Arevalo make contact around the area Cedano was stabbed, police said in an affidavit.

Arevalo, 27, was arrested last week on a murder charge, police said. He was taken into custody by detectives and SWAT officers at his Las Vegas house.

After denying involvement, he eventually admitted to the crime, according to an affidavit. 

The stabbing was reported shortly before midnight in the neighborhood near Owens Avenue and Pecos Road, police said. When medics arrived, Cedano was bleeding profusely.

He died at University Medical Center, police said.

Witnesses told police that they’d showed up to party and to watch bands play live music.

But at some point, a fight broke out between Cedano and three attendees, police said. Cedano was “dragged to the end of the driveway” and was stabbed, police said.

An associate of Arevalo told detectives that he’d gone to his apartment and washed blood off a knife, police said. When confronted, the suspect told the associate that he was washing lime off the weapon.

The video absolved the other two people who’d fought Cedano, police said.

Arevalo later told detectives that he’d stabbed the victim because he saw him reaching for the knife, police said. But that’s not what the video showed, and no gun was found or seen.

Arevalo is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond, jail logs show.