Henderson man with ties to 2 overdose deaths faces murder charge

A Henderson man linked to two overdose deaths has been charged with murder.

According to a Las Vegas police arrest report for Jayden Hughes, 20, police were called at 9:30 a.m. on March 26 to a Las Vegas home for a report of a drug overdose. An 18-year-old man was found unconscious, then rushed to Desert Springs Hospital in cardiac arrest.

The man died at the hospital on April 5. An autopsy showed that he had cocaine, opiates and marijuana in his system.

Police said they looked at the man’s phone and found evidence indicating that he bought cocaine and Roxicodone pills from Hughes on March 24.

“(The man) and Hughes had a conversation on their Snapchat accounts to each other on March 25, 2020, about how good the product was that Hughes sold (the man),” police wrote. “(The man) overdosed one day later.”

Police opened a criminal investigation and learned that Hughes’ girlfriend also died on March 28 at a Las Vegas Valley apartment. An autopsy showed that the woman died from fentanyl and MDMA intoxication, police said.

Hughes had called police to report that he had found his girlfriend unconscious. A Clark County coroner’s office investigator found “a copious amount of marijuana and illicit narcotic paraphernalia around the apartment,” police said.

Police said they examined Hughes’ social media accounts, including a Snapchat account, in which Hughes openly posted about the “use and sales of illegal controlled substances.”

In June, police said, undercover detectives contacted Hughes and purchased four grams of cocaine. In July, according to police, Hughes posted more photos on social media about using and selling MDMA, marijuana, LSD and cocaine.

On July 22, an undercover officer purchased 3.9 more grams of cocaine from Hughes. Police then searched Hughes’ Henderson apartment, finding cocaine, etizolam, flualprazolam, flubromazolam, and methamphetamine. Police said they then found text messages between Hughes and a potential witness that indicated he had waited hours to call authorities to report his girlfriend’s death.

According to the arrest report, Hughes told police that he and his girlfriend consumed pills prior to her death.

“Hughes stated they were ‘pressed pills,’ which contained Fentanyl,” police wrote in the report. “Hughes went on to explain what pressed pills were and that it is common knowledge that the pills you buy in the street are pressed pills and not pharmaceutical grade. Hughes advised he buys the pills because he uses Fentanyl.”

An arrest warrant filed in Las Vegas Justice Court charges Hughes with second-degree murder and selling controlled substances.

The murder charge, according to the arrest report, stems from his girlfriend’s death. Police said in pursuing the charge that Hughes provided the pills that killed the woman, then waited for hours to call authorities to report her death.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.