‘Let’s just nail it up,’ Alpine Motel fire survivor testifies about blocked door

The long-term partner of an Alpine Motel Apartments maintenance man watched as he nailed the complex’s back door shut about two months before the deadly blaze that killed six people, she testified Wednesday.

Catherine Jacobo, who also goes by Renee Duncan, testified that she witnessed a conversation between her partner, Don Bennett, and the complex’s live-in manager, Jason Casteel, during which Casteel was upset about the broken door. Jacobo testified during a preliminary hearing Wednesday that Casteel suggested nailing the door shut.

‘Let’s just nail it up’

“Jason said to Don, he said, ‘Let’s just nail it up,’” she testified. “Then Don said, ‘Wait a minute, you know that’s a fire hazard right?’”

Casteel told the maintenance man to block the door anyway, Jacobo testified. When the fire broke out in the early morning of Dec. 21, 2019, at least one woman died steps from the blocked door.

Testimony about the door came during the continuation of a preliminary hearing in the criminal case against the Alpine’s owner, Adolfo Orozco, and Malinda Mier, one of the complex’s managers.

The proceedings had halted for nearly two years after Don Dibble, an investigator working for Orozco’s defense team, refused to testify in 2020. The hearing resumed Tuesday with Dibble taking the stand to testify about an interview he conducted with Malinda Mier in the months after the fire, which left six dead, 13 injured and nearly 50 people without shelter.

Dibble took the stand after the Supreme Court upheld a judge’s decision to hold him in contempt.

According to Dibble’s testimony, Casteel had told Orozco and Mier about the broken door, and he informed Mier that he was going to get the supplies to fix it at Home Depot. But Mier told Casteel that she could find the materials cheaper, Dibble testified.

Dibble said that during his interview with Mier, she claimed she took a trip to Louisiana after her conversation with Casteel and forgot about the door.

‘Now there’s only one way in and out’

Jacobo, who was called as a witness by Orozco’s defense team, testified that Casteel was angry about the broken door and asked Bennett to nail it shut to prevent people from sleeping on the building’s stairs at night.

“After it was done Jason said… ‘now there’s only one way in and out: the front door,’” she testified.

Bennett died in the fire after rushing door to door through the burning building, waking up the residents and alerting them to the blaze. His partner is one of multiple people who have filed lawsuits in the aftermath of the blaze, which have now been consolidated into a single case. She filed the lawsuit in December 2021 that claimed Casteel “ordered” Bennett to bolt the door closed.

Las Vegas Fire Marshal Robert Nolan also testified on Wednesday about fire inspections at the building.

In the weeks after the fire, the Review-Journal obtained records showing that inspectors noted 42 fire code violations after the blaze, including the locked rear door, a lack of a functioning sprinkler system and missing or defective smoke detectors in at least 14 locations throughout the building. On Wednesday, Nolan testified that the building had not been cited for missing smoke alarms since January 2017.

Nolan has previously told the Review-Journal that his office did not inspect the apartment building in the 32 months leading up to the fire.

The preliminary hearing is expected to resume on March 8 with more testimony from Nolan. Orozco’s defense attorney, Dominic Gentile, has said he expects to call a total of 10 witnesses before the hearing is over.

The defendants face six felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, along with charges of disregarding the safety of a person resulting in death or substantial bodily harm and a gross misdemeanor count of destroying or concealing evidence. Orozco also faces charges of attempting to dissuade someone from testifying and attempting to prevent a person from reporting a crime.

At the end of the hearing, Zimmerman will decide if there is enough evidence for the Orozco and Mier to stand trial.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.