Las Vegas police arrest man in connection to February murder

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on Thursday announced the arrest of a man in connection to a murder investigation from Feb. 10.

David Rodriguez-Kepple, 28, was arrested Wednesday by the Criminal Apprehension Team. He is being held without bond on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Police responded on Feb. 10 to a shooting call near the 2000 block of Los Feliz Street, where they found a man they later identified as Carlos Martinez suffering from gunshot wounds. Martinez died at a hospital shortly after.

Detectives learned that the night prior the same residence was shot at, and nine cartridge cases were recovered from the scene.

Investigators also learned from a witness that two other suspects were believed to be involved in the murder of Martinez. The suspects, both juveniles, were arrested Feb. 23 and booked into Clark County Juvenile Hall for open murder charges.

One of the juveniles later told police Kepple was involved in the homicide.

“On Feb. 10, [the juveniles] were doing cocaine. David was ‘egging’ them on and threatened to kick [them] out of the house if he didn’t do something about the situation,” the report stated.

When police found Kepple at his home, detectives located “an extensive amount of marijuana, paraphernalia and firearms throughout the home... and a makeshift lab inside the garage that was used to produce vaping devices loaded with marijuana to be sold.”

Police seized five firearms including two privately manufactured rifles from Kepple’s home.

Kepple later told police he gave the juveniles guns and told them to go to Martinez’s house and “do whatever they had to do to get the job done.”

Kepple’s next hearing in court has not been scheduled as of Thursday morning.