Thursday, April 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Kind-hearted stabbing victim recalled

32-year-old killed during encounter with neighbor

Tonya Payton, left, wife of slaying victim Troy Payton, embraces his sister, Selana Williams, at the spot where Payton was fatally stabbed Saturday at the Sunrise Vista Executive Suites . Photo by John Locher. Letters and flowers are posted at a makeshift memorial in honor of stabbing victim Troy Payton, who died Saturday. Photo by John Locher. Troy Payton Loved Nevada, wide open spaces

Tonya Payton ran to her husband's side, but was too late to hear him cry out her name as he collapsed in a puddle of his own blood.

Moments after breaking up a dispute between neighbors at a weekly motel, Troy Payton, 32, went outside his apartment Saturday when he heard a woman scream next door.

An angry neighbor armed with a butcher knife then sliced Troy Payton, cutting deep into his chest, Tonya Payton said.

"He heard a woman screaming bloody murder next door. He went outside and the guy sliced him across the chest and heart with a kitchen-type knife," Tonya Payton said.

Neighbors, she said, told her that her husband "took a couple steps and he said my name. He called for me, `Tonya, Tonya,' but he fell to the ground. I got to him too late to hear him."

She said the laceration was so deep that both she and her husband were covered in blood as he died.

While making arrangements Wednesday for his funeral today, Troy Payton's relatives recalled the day he was slain, and remembered him as a kind-hearted man who loved Nevada for its frontier history and wide-open places.

The suspect, Abimael Azmitia, and his pregnant wife moved in next door to the Paytons at the Sunrise Vista Executive Suites, near the U.S. Highway 95 off-ramp at Charleston Boulevard, a couple of days before the slaying, Payton's relatives said.

Troy Payton confronted Azmitia, 24, on Saturday after Azmitia was making comments to a 15-year-old girl who also lived at the weekly motel, Payton's relatives said.

Azmitia returned to his apartment, but not for long.

After hearing Azmitia's pregnant wife screaming at him, Troy Payton stepped outside and Azmitia stabbed him, Payton's relatives said.

With his hands and arms covered in blood, Azmitia ran to a nearby convenience store. Motel residents called 911 while others chased Azmitia, police said.

Tonya Payton said the motel guests surrounded the store and refused to let Azmitia leave until police arrived.

Las Vegas police said that Azmitia was making offensive remarks and gestures toward the teen, and confirmed that motel guests followed Azmitia to a nearby convenience store after the stabbing.

Some of residents beat up Azmitia, but none of them was arrested, police said. Azmitia was arrested on suspicion of murder and use of a deadly weapon.

Troy Payton's mother, Peggy Irving, from the Northern Nevada city of Dayton, viewed her son's corpse at a funeral home Tuesday. She said she hadn't seen him in about a year.

Troy Payton, an iron worker who came to Las Vegas several years ago for the work, had worked construction for Bellagio, Luxor and The Venetian, relatives said.

At times, he also worked at the top-secret government facility in the desert north of Las Vegas widely known as Area 51 as well as at the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Irving said.

Troy Payton had a daughter from a previous relationship, and Tonya Payton said he treated her three children as if they were his own.

Troy Payton grew up riding horses in the Central California community of Atascadero, family members recalled. He had said he wanted his ashes spread in an area near Carson City where wild horses were known to live.

With his 6-foot-4-inch, 230-pound frame and his fun-loving personality, Irving likened her son to a "young Grizzly Adams."

"He loved wild horses, Harley Davidsons and mines," Irving, 60, said. "He loved the whole history of Nevada because we are country people and horse people, and he loved the open frontier."