Arrest reports give more details of teens arrested in fatal beating of Rancho teen

In the initial police response to a fatal mob beating of a Rancho High School student, a Metropolitan Police Department detective indicated the fight possibly involved gang members, arrest reports show.

The detective “indicated the fight possibly involved gang members associated (with) Young Rich Team, Murder Block, and 2100 Block,” according to Metro arrest reports for four of the teens arrested in connection with the beating of Jonathan Lewis Jr. No further details about those apparent gangs were mentioned in the report.

Arrest reports for Damien Hernandez, 17, Gianni Robinson, 17, Treavion Randolph, 16, and Dontral Beaver, 16, were released Wednesday by the Las Vegas Justice Court.

All four teens were arrested Nov. 14. Robinson was arrested at his North Las Vegas home; Randolph was arrested near McDaniel Street and Stanley Avenue in North Las Vegas; Hernandez was arrested at his Las Vegas home. Beaver’s report was redacted in the description of where he was arrested, but the report appears to state he was arrested at his Las Vegas home.

More details on beating

The reports provide additional details of the Nov. 1 fatal beating of Lewis in an alleyway behind 1308 N. 21st St., just north of Searles Avenue, near the school. After Lewis was brought to University Medical Center, medical staff notified Metro police while officers were still processing the crime scene that Lewis had suffered a non-survivable injury and had no brain activity, the report stated.

Homicide detectives then took over the investigation from gang detectives, the arrest reports stated.

The attack against Lewis, caught on video, showed a large group of teens kicking, punching and stomping on Lewis, police have said.

Hernandez, Robinson, Randolph and Beaver were among the eight teens between 13 and 17 who were arrested Nov. 14. They were formally charged with second-degree murder on Tuesday and are being tried as adults.

The four other teenagers arrested, all under 16, will need to face a certification hearing in juvenile court, where a judge to determine if they will be tried as adults. A ninth teen has also been arrested, police announced Tuesday. Metro said Tuesday police are also still looking for another person of interest.

The arrest reports released Wednesday provided some additional details into the fatal beating, but because of the many redactions in the reports released to the Review-Journal, it was difficult to determine the full scope of the events alleged in the arrest reports.

According to the reports, the theft of a pair of wireless headphones at school spurred the fight to be set up to take place in the back alley, which is something police said when the arrests were first announced.

Potential gang affiliation

As officers investigated the scene in the hours after the beating, a detective showed officers a video on Instagram that showed the fight. It was at this point that the detective mentioned the possible gang affiliation, the reports said.

The videos, according to the reports, showed a group of 15 to 20 males and females entering the alley. Two other people whose names are redacted, but possibly Lewis and his friend, enter the alley behind the larger group of teens.

One teen pushes another teen in the back into a parked vehicle. The videos show one of the boys, possibly Lewis, taking off a red sweatshirt and preparing to fight.

After one of the teens in the larger group was punched in the face, the group of teens attacked.

School administrators were also shown the video from social media. The report also said multiple people filmed the incident with their phones. While watching the video, administrators were able to identity many of the teens involved in the attack, the reports said.

Detectives met with several people and with search warrants, seized their phones as evidence, the reports stated.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com.