Las Vegas inmate’s strangling death leaves family with questions

The family of an inmate strangled this month at the Clark County Detention Center is questioning how their loved one could be killed while in law enforcement custody.

Las Vegas police said Blancy Yonko, 59, was found unresponsive in his cell by a corrections officer at the county jail on Dec. 13. He was rushed to the University Medical Center where he died two days after the assault. An autopsy showed he died from ligature strangulation, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Yonko’s cellmate, Steven Revell, 39, is charged with murder.

“His life was taken from him,” said Yonko’s sister Sheila Yonko, 53, of Phoenix, during a phone interview. “It isn’t fair. That is my oldest brother.”

Police said an investigation showed the two cellmates “had a confrontation inside their cell” and that Revell strangled Yonko. Revell had just been jailed on a charge of attempted murder in a Dec. 5 stabbing attack on a visitor to Fremont Street Experience. Police said the attack was “completely unprovoked” and that Revell didn’t know the person he’s accused of stabbing in the back.

Yonko was at the detention center on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon after authorities said he threatened a man with a knife at a Las Vegas fast food restaurant in February. Yonko, according to Las Vegas Justice Court records, had a lengthy arrest record in Las Vegas, but his other arrests were mostly for trespassing, public vagrancy, obstructing a sidewalk and larceny offenses.

‘So lost’

Sheila Yonko said her brother had a good heart. He was born in Denver and was the oldest of 13 children. He spent much of his early life caring for his 12 brothers and sisters.

“I was about 10 or 11, and he used to comb our hair, get my brothers and sisters ready for school, make us something to eat, rush us out to the bus,” Sheila Yonko said. “He’d make sure we get to school, and when we’d get back he’d already have a pot of food ready for us. He was barely 13, maybe 14.”

Blancy Yonko married at a young age and had three children. For years it seemed like everything would fine for Blancy, his sister said, but when he and his ex-wife separated, his life changed. Sheila Yonko said her brother became despondent over the breakup of his family. Eventually, she said, he walked away from his prior life and ended up struggling with alcoholism while living on the streets of Las Vegas.

“He was so heartbroken, so lost,” Sheila Yonko said, adding “That’s when everything went downhill for him. He loved them so much that he turned away. He walked away.”

Sheila Yonko said “He wasn’t a bad guy. He just got lost in the world.”

Before his death, Sheila Yonko said she talked to his brother and he said he was committed to turning his life around.

“He was in a Christian program and was learning about God,” Sheila Yonko said. “He was a Christian before, but this time God really touched him. He spoke more about God and Jesus.”

Sheila Yonko said her brother’s death has been devastating to her family. She and her siblings want to know why her brother was put in the same cell with Revell.

“They should look into this,” she said. “The main thing is, no matter what, my brother is not coming back.”

Las Vegas police said in an email to the Review-Journal that the jail does carry out a classification system of inmates aimed at making sure they are kept safe. Regarding Yonko’s case, police said: “As with every critical incident with the LVMPD, our Critical Incident Review Team along with homicide is conducting an investigation into this death.”

Sheila Yonko said she wants to know how the violence could happen to her brother.

“For his life to just be taken like that, after all he’s been through, he didn’t deserve it,” she said. “He deserved to live.”

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