Vegas murder suspect extradited from California

The suspect of a deadly stabbing in 2012 has been extradited from a California prison to face murder charges in Nevada, according to the Clark County district attorney’s office.

Giovanni Kohler Kurtze, 24, is facing multiple charges — murder, auto theft and armed robbery — in connection with a stabbing that left one man dead in October 2012. He was transported here from Salinas Valley State Prison in California where he had been serving time on a burglary case.

According to Metropolitan Police Department arrest records, Kurtze was involved in a high-speed chase with officers from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department on Oct. 14, 2012.

San Bernardino County police said Kurtze was driving a gray 2004 BMW 325i at speeds exceeding 100 mph. Officers chased the BMW for more than 5 miles before the car crashed and the driver tried to run away.

Officers took Kurtze into custody and discovered the BMW was registered in Nevada to Frolian Abellera.

Metro officers were sent to his apartment on North Tenaya Way, where they saw a light on but did not get an answer. The following day, Abellera’s boss called Las Vegas police to report that he had not come to work and was not answering the telephone.

It was unusual for him, she told police. Officers were sent to Abellera’s apartment again, and again there was no answer. A cousin in California called Las Vegas police to report Abellera as a missing person later that day.

That night paramedics with the Las Vegas Fire Department went to Abellera’s apartment to check on him. They found his body lying on its right side in the fetal position in the bathtub. A gray rug and plastic dry cleaner bags were covering his legs and he had an apparent stab wound on his left side.

Abellera bled to death.

An autopsy showed he had been stabbed and cut more than 40 times, indicating possible torture. His ransacked apartment was a mess of blood stains and smears mixed with an orange residue from cleaning products. It was apparent that cash had been taken from his apartment.

Kurtze told detectives who traveled to California to interview him that he went to Las Vegas with $3,000 and had been hanging out on the Strip playing blackjack at various casinos. He said he was drinking and using methamphetamine.

He told police he took the car from a parking lot when he saw it was left running. Kurtze didn’t stop for California police because he knew it was “hot,” he told police.

When asked if he had met a Filipino in Las Vegas, he asked, “Do I look like I’m gay?”

“I didn’t rob no Asian person,” Kurtze said when police pressed him further.

The police report states that Kurtze became agitated when police told him the owner of the BMW was dead. He repeatedly asked to see the evidence against him and what he was being charged with.

The report also details an interview with a hitchhiker that Kurtze gave a ride to. The woman reportedly told police Kurtze told her he was a hit man who “went to Las Vegas to kill a pedophile.”

Jewelry found on Kurtze was identified as belonging to Abellera by witnesses.

None of the DNA collected at Abellera’s apartment could be positively identified as belonging to Kurtze. The report says a palm print lifted from the bathroom counter near the tub was from Kurtze’s left hand.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.