Suspect jailed in battery, purse grab outside North Las Vegas casino

North Las Vegas police have arrested a woman they say battered a 73-year-old woman and took her purse last month in a casino parking lot.

Officers had asked for the public’s help on June 5 in finding the person responsible for the May 1 robbery and battery in the Texas Station parking lot. On Tuesday, police announced that the public helped them identify Kourtnie Goudchaux, 32, as a suspect.

Goudchaux was booked Monday into the Las Vegas Detention Center on a charge of robbery, jail records show. Her bail was set at $20,000.

On May 1, police said someone tried to grab the woman’s purse and they fought, police spokesman Eric Leavitt previously said. The woman suffered a serious head injury from falling to the ground.

In an interview with police on Monday, Goudchaux said she was gambling at the casino the night of the robbery and “lost her money,” according to her arrest report. She said she then walked the older woman out of the casino and hit her on the back of the head, causing her to fall.

Goudchaux told police she took the woman’s purse and ran away, the report said.

The victim 73-year-old told police another woman had asked her for help outside the casino, but then followed her, tried grabbing her purse and pushed her, the report said.

The injured woman was hospitalized and released, Leavitt said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.