Judge sets $1M bail for Las Vegas mom accused of shooting son
A judge set bail at $1 million Thursday for a Las Vegas mother accused of shooting and critically wounding her 11-year-old son.
Shavon Carrillo, 31, who also goes by Shavon Aguilar, faces a charge of attempted murder and three charges of child abuse. She was arrested Monday, hours after the shooting.
In court, when asked whether she understood the charges against her, Carrillo responded “a little,” and added that she had discussed them with Deputy Clark County Public Defender Gary Guymon.
At times Carrillo appeared frustrated with media presence, and held up a piece of paper to shield her face from photographers.
Justice of the Peace Ann E. Zimmerman asked whether Carrillo could afford to hire an attorney.
“I haven’t been able to talk to nobody, so I don’t know,” Carrillo replied, then motioned toward Guymon. “He knows more of what’s going on.”
Carrillo ultimately said she did not have the money to pay for a lawyer, and the judge appointed the public defender’s office to her case.
After Zimmerman set bail, Carrillo inquired about a Clark County Detention Center segregation unit in which she was being held.
“Can I get out of C2?” she asked. “I don’t know what that is, and I don’t like it there. I don’t know why.”
The judge told her housing inmates was delegated to the sheriff’s office.
In the early morning hours Monday, Carrillo was lying next to her son, Israel, in his sleeping bag and told him “I love you” before she pulled the trigger. The boy was shot in the head and is not expected to live.
Authorities have not named the boy, but sources close to the family identified him.
He was taken to University Medical Center in critical condition.
Carrillo told police she fired a .22-caliber rifle after she saw headlights outside the apartment where she was staying on Pebble Beach Boulevard, near Vegas Drive and Decatur Boulevard, and heard a car door slam, according to a police report.
Carrillo believed she was being followed by people associated with her husband. On the morning of the shooting, Carrillo said, a man named “Bobby” came to her apartment to pick up money she owed him. She kept the rifle in a closet and took it out when he arrived, according to the arrest report.
Afterward, she tried to build “enough courage to kill her children and herself,” the report said, because she wanted them all to be in a “better place.”
Moments after the shooting, Carrillo’s brother-in-law rushed in to see what happened and wrestled the gun away from Carrillo before she could shoot herself, the report said. Carrillo’s two daughters also were in bed in the same room as her son at the time of the shooting, police said.
Police say Carrillo attempted suicide after splitting up with her husband three months ago. She also admitted using methamphetamine.
Contact reporter David Ferrara at 702-380-1039 or dferrara@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.
