Man charged in Elko Indian colony slaying

RENO — A suicidal gunman climbed through the window of a friend’s house at the Elko Indian Colony and asked her to videotape him killing himself before he eventually fatally shot another friend who lived in the home, federal prosecutors say.

Thomas Caudill, 33, was being held without bail Saturday in the slaying of 26-year-old Wes Lozano earlier this week.

A federal magistrate ordered him on Wednesday to appear at a preliminary hearing before U.S. District Judge William Cobb in Reno on Aug. 20.

FBI Special Agent Brian Kennedy said in the criminal complaint that Caudill had tried to apologize to Lozano after he shot him Tuesday. He said Caudill was uncooperative during his interrogation when he removed his blood-stained shirt and threw it at investigators.

“That’s my friend’s blood,” he told them, according to the complaint.

The FBI is leading the investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office filed the charges in Reno because both men were members of the Elko Indian Colony and the shooting occurred on a federal reservation.

Caudill has been arrested twice in Elko in the past year, including an incident where he is alleged to have threatened another man with a knife in October, according to the Elko Daily Free Press.

He appeared intoxicated the night of Aug. 5 when he climbed through Taryn Thomas’ bedroom window and showed her a gun, the complaint said.

Thomas, who has known Caudill for several years, told investigators it was not unusual for various people to climb through her window at all hours and that Caudill had done so several times before.

Caudill alternately pointed the gun at himself and at Thomas, the complaint said, and eventually pointed it at her head and asked her, “Are you against me?”

He told her he intended to hurt “the people who have done him wrong, but he did not specifically name anybody.” After plugging his cellular phone into Thomas’ stereo to charge it, he told her he wanted to kill himself and wanted her to “record it on his telephone,” the complaint said.

Lozano, who also lives in the residence and has known Caudill for years, soon returned home from work and met Thomas in the hallway before Caudill called out and asked him to enter the bedroom.

Caudill told Lozano he wanted to show him the gun. He began pointing it at Lozano and told him he wanted him to look at the gun. Lozano said nothing before Caudill fired one round, striking Lozano in the body, the complaint said.

“Did I get you bro?” Caudill said, according to the complaint that said Lozano then lifted up his shirt, and Thomas could see blood.

“I’m sorry,” Caudill said several times as Lozano ran out the front door.

Thomas told her mother who was asleep on the living room couch to call 911 and she did.

Lozano collapsed in front of the house and Caudill tried to drag him back into the house. Caudill then gave the gun, magazine and bullets to Thomas and told her, “Here, take this. I don’t want to do anything stupid.”

U.S. Magistrate Valerie Cook appointed federal public defender Biray Dogan of Reno to represent Caudill on the charge of murder within Indian country. Dogan declined to comment Friday.